Daily Archives: April 25, 2017

Iowan Breaks U.S. Space Travel Record – Iowa Public Radio

Posted: April 25, 2017 at 5:21 am

Astronaut and Iowa native Peggy Whitson has set a U.S. record for space travel. Today is her 535th cumulative day in space, one day longer than the record previously held by astronaut Jeff Williams. Whitson is currently commanding the International Space Station, and this morning took a congratulatory phone call from President Donald Trump.

Thats an incredible record to break, Trump said via a video link from the Oval Office. On behalf of our nation and, frankly, on behalf of the world, Id like to congratulate you. That is really something.

Whitson grew up on a farm in Mt. Ayr in southwest Iowa. She says it was the Apollo missions to the moon that first got her interested in becoming an astronaut.

But I dont really think it became a goal until I graduated from high school and the first female astronauts were selected, she said. Seeing those role models and with the encouragement of my parents and various mentors in college and graduate school and when I started working at Rice [University], thats what made it possible, I think, to become an astronaut.

Whitson has worked for NASA since 1989 and took her first space flight in 2002. Shes on her third mission aboard the International Space Station, and is commanding it for the second time. Shes scheduled to return to earth in September.

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Dusky Beauty Preparing For Space Travel – Gulte

Posted: at 5:21 am

Other day upon returning from New York to Mumbai, dusky beauty Priyanka Chopra enjoyed a huge warm welcome at the airport though fans have mobbed her. And then here is a big news about her impending space travel.

Though Priyanka is here to promote her latest movie Baywatch, where she got a minuscular role as an antagonist, here's the stunning update. Couple of years ago, a debutante director Priya Mishra, who has headed an entertainment channel earlier, has offered a chance to Priyanka to star in the biopic being made on India's first woman astronaut in space, Kalpana Chawla. There seems to be some movement on this project now.

It's heard that our hottie is preparing for the role as the pre-production of the biopic is going on at a full swing. Probably after acting as Mary Kom in one biopic, this will be second such thing for Priyanka. Kalpana Chawla hails from Haryana and flew into space shuttle Columbia in 1997. She died on her second expedition along with six other crew members in 2003, in a space shuttle disaster.

Priyanka's biopic on Kalpana will feature the life and times of the astronaut including her journey all the was to NASA, USA and her final hours in the space shuttle.

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Ashes of the Singularity Dev: The Nintendo Switch Doesn’t Need 3rd Party Support – Wccftech

Posted: at 5:20 am

Nintendos new platform, the Nintendo Switch, wont really need support from third party developers according to the CEO of Ashes of the Singularity developer, Stardock.

Many have said that Nintendos new platform would need good third-party support if it wanted to succeed, but Stardocks CEO Brad Wardell doesnt think thats correct as Nintendo has enough great franchises of its own. This would be different if the Switch was a more expensive platform, but this isnt the case.

Nintendo doesnt arguablyneedthird party, Wardell said in a recent interview with website Gamingbolt. You think about theMariogames,Zelda,I mean, theres plenty there. I mean, if it was a $1000 game system, maybe Id care. But as it stands now, there is plenty to play with on the Switch, thats just fine.

At this point, the Nintendo Switch has way better third-party support than its predecessor, the Wii U, and the platform has been selling like hot-cakes. According to retailer GameStop, the Switch is selling out instantly and could possibly eclipse the original Wii.

The Nintendo Switch is off to a start right now that it could possibly eclipse the Wii, GameStops senior director of merchandising, Eric Bright, said during a recent interview with Game Rant. Initial sales on this have been phenomenal. I cant give straight numbers, but I can say were seeing one of the highest attach rates of software and accessories to a device that weve seen in a long time.

As covered last week, the Switch was the best-selling console in the US for the month of March and the platform became Nintendos best-selling platform the first month after its release. In addition, the Zelda franchise becamethe top-selling property of all time within the Adventure super genre, selling 54 percent more revenue than the next best-selling franchise, Resident Evil.

The Nintendo Switch is available globally now alongside 1-2-Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The new Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch will release on April 28.

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Shark attacks British woman off Ascension Island – BBC News – BBC News

Posted: at 5:17 am


BBC News
Shark attacks British woman off Ascension Island - BBC News
BBC News
Her husband reportedly punched the animal to scare it away and she is now being treated in hospital.
Husband Punches Shark to Save Wife Attacked While Snorkeling near British Ascension IslandNewsweek
British woman mauled by shark near Ascension Island saved after husband punched itTelegraph.co.uk
British woman savaged by shark at Ascension IslandThe Times (subscription)
Stuff.co.nz -Metro -Evening Standard
all 34 news articles »

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WWE News: Road Warrior Animal goes off on The Ascension – Sportskeeda

Posted: at 5:17 am

Whats the story?

As reported by Wrestling News, WWE Hall of Famer Road Warrior Animal has spoken out about the current tag team scene within the company and, more specifically, how he feels about The Ascension. Animal talked about these issues during an interview with Hannibal TV.

Animal is one-half of one of the greatest tag teams in the history of professional wrestling, The Road Warriors. Over the years, hes re-appeared now and then both with and without Hawk, who sadly passed away in October 2003. His last tag title reign with the company came alongside Heidenreich when they defeated MNM back in July 2005.

In the above clip, Animal talks about all things related to the tag team division, with some of his comments concerning The Ascension. Animal feels that they need to stop trying to be the Road Warriors, saying No way, shape, form, build, action, wrestling will beat Road Warriors. Leave it alone, leave it alone, thats my advice to them.

Also read: Road Warrior Animal on why The New Day are special

Itll be interesting to see if The Ascension responds to these comments, especially considering how weak their current position within the company is. With SmackDown Lives tag team division getting something of a reboot over the last few weeks, it remains to be seen whether the tag team will be featured going forward on the blue brand.

Animal has always been someone who doesnt really care what people think, and thus his comments arent all too surprising. Where The Ascension is concerned, however, it doesnt really seem fair to judge them for the current gimmick as its clearly WWE who have decided to make them nothing more than a Road Warriors tribute act.

With that being said, we hope that the duo is given a chance to shine as their stint in NXT proved just how good they could be.

Send us news tips at fightclub@sportskeeda.com

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Ascension Parish library reaches big goal in expansion project – The Advocate

Posted: at 5:17 am

GALVEZ Galvez residents going to the library on Monday will walk into a part of the building they've never seen before.

Sealed off for construction for the last 10 months, a new 6,000-square-foot addition on the east side of the building facing La. 42 will open.

The new space will serve as the library for the Galvez community through the end of the year while the old library space gets a new roof and a renovation.

The work is all part of a $3.34 million expansion and renovation project that will more than double the size of the library from approximately 10,000 square feet to some 23,000 square feet.

Along with the new addition, another, 4,000-square foot addition, temporarily being used for storage, has gone up on the west side of the building.

The new addition, which will offer new space for library activities for the public and another room for groups to meet, will open at the end of the year, along with the renovated original building, said Angelle Deshautelles, library director for the Ascension Parish library system.

The number of parking spaces at the library is more than doubling, too, going from 45 to 104.

"When this was built and opened in 1992, it was designed to serve 15,000 people," Deshautelles said of the Galvez location.

The population in the area has more than doubled since then and was estimated in 2010 at more than 36,000, she said.

Other libraries in Ascension Parish are in Donaldsonville, Gonzales and Dutchtown.

Deshautelles said she believes that by the end of 2017 the library system will have saved enough money to begin planning for a library in St. Amant, where it already has property on La. 43.

"We anticipate it will be 23,000 square feet, too," she said.

Like all of the Ascension Parish Library construction projects, the Galvez library project was funded by property taxes.

The Ascension Parish Library system receives 95 percent of its funding from two property taxes, one a 2.6 millage and the other a 4.2 millage.

Other funding comes from the state and fees and fines.

The library puts money aside for construction, which "stretches things out time-wise" but "doesn't cost the taxpayer any more money," Deshautelles has said.

The Galvez library has been closed for the last two weeks while a professional moving company and library staffers moved shelves, books and more from the old part of the building, which will be sealed off during its renovation, to the new addition.

Deshautelles said that during the first three days the building was closed, more than 100 people came to the front door where workers were going in and out, to ask, "'Y'all closed?'" Deshautelles said.

The Galvez library is used by about 2,500 to 3,000 people weekly, she said.

Library employees on Friday were checking to make sure that books were in the right order on the shelves in the new addition.

The new area has a large activity room for children, complete with a sink, ideal for craft projects, staff said.

"It's really exciting," said branch librarian Stephanie Mayeux of all the new space.

"There was not enough space to showcase all our resources" in the old building, she said.

At the end of the year, the Galvez library will have to close again for two weeks to move back into the renovated original portion of the building and the second new addition.

When all the dust settles at the end of the year, the new Galvez library will have 20 computers, an increase of 12; three study rooms, an increase of 2; a magazine-reading room; and a library section for young adults for the first time.

The architect for the project is Henry Chauvin of Gonzales, and the contractor is Stuart and Co. of Baton Rouge.

"I grew up here, I'm one of those little kids who lived in the library," said Deshautelles, a native of Ascension Parish.

"This is the library (system) I used as a child, and I know what it can help you accomplish," she said.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Ascension Parish upholds National Day of Prayer – News – Gonzales … – Weekly Citizen

Posted: at 5:17 am

Greg Fischer Editor-in-chief @AscensionEditor

Parish President Kenny Matassa has invited the public to attend lunch for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 4 at Lamar Dixon Expo Center.

Matassa said the theme of the prayer is according to Daniel 9:19, O, Lord, Listen! O Lord, Forgive! O Lord, Hear and Act! For Your Sake, O My God

A letter by Matassa sent by email on April 23 read, "Across the United States our leaders celebrate the National Day of Prayer! It is with great pleasure that I invite you to attend our 8th Annual National Day of Prayer Luncheon. The public is invited to attend this blessed event which takes place on Thursday, May 4, 2017 at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center. Lunch is being served at 11:30 a.m. followed by a program beginning at noon. This luncheon provides you with an opportunity to interact with clergy, business leaders, and elected officials in our community; as well as participate in an event that is celebrated across the country. It is my hope that you will take time out of your busy schedules to join me, and the Prayer Task Force as we set aside this time to reflect together.

If you would like to receive additional information about the National Day of Prayer please visit http://www.nationaldayofprayer.com.

I look forward to seeing you at the luncheon!

Sincerely,

Parish President Kenny Matassa and

The National Day of Prayer Committee."

The website offers patrons a place to donate and comes complete with a real time ticker counting down to the National Day of Prayer. For more information on how to participate or attend lunch, contact Kemlyn Bailey-Lomas kbaileylomas@apgov.us or call 225-450-1142.

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Monkeys help pave way for US space exploration – Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Posted: at 5:17 am

Memorials to the scientists, engineers and pioneers who contributed to human understanding of outer space are scattered throughout the world.

One in particular stands out, and it belongs to an unlikely celebrity: a squirrel monkey named Miss Baker.

Miss Baker, weighing in at 11 ounces, was the first animal to travel into space and survive its long-term effects. On May 28, 1959, she was strapped into her shoebox-sized capsule aboard a Jupiter AM-18. With her as a travel companion was Able, a 7 pound female rhesus monkey.

Both rode in the rockets nose cone and reached the edge of space at an altitude of 360 miles, traveling 1,700 miles at a peak speed of 10,000 mph. The flight duration was only 16 minutes, and the two monkeys experienced weightlessness for more than half of the trip, about 9 minutes.

Able and Miss Baker were immediate celebrities. Both appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and The New York Times reported that correspondents jostled over chairs to get closer to the pair.

Both monkeys tolerated the journey and returned in good condition. Able, however, died four days later from anesthesia administered while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode. She is preserved and on display at the Smithsonian Institutions National Air and Space Museum.

Miss Baker would survive 25 more years, enjoying a long and celebrated life. She was 27 years old when she died on November 29, 1984. She is buried on the grounds of the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. She regularly receives visitors, many leaving a banana at her grave site as a small token of affection and appreciation for her contribution to space exploration.

The monkeys mission was vitally important to the space program to determine a humans ability to survive space travel.

During the flight, scientists monitored the monkeys biological responses to flight. Their heartbeats, respiration, pulse, temperature, muscular responses, and other physical responses were recorded and relayed back to Earth.

While cultural icons, they were not the first Earth life form to travel into space. This distinction belongs to fruit flies sent into space on Feb. 20, 1947, aboard a U.S. V-2 rocket.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union sent mice, monkeys and dogs into space. The mortality rate was high among these missions, but valuable information was gained from each experiment and enabled advancements in space exploration.

By the time Able and Miss Baker took their voyage, the space race was in high gear. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were striving to be the first to successfully send a human into orbit. Doing so would demonstrate the successful nations superiority and advance efforts to achieve national security.

Two years after Able and Miss Bakers mission, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, became the first human to journey into space. His flight might not have been successful without knowledge gained from space travel by others in our animal world.

Terry P. Bolt, call sign Woodsy, lives in Richmond, Va. She is a helicopter pilot, space travel enthusiast and holds a masters of science degree in information systems from Virginia Commonwealth University. She and former Walla Wallan Craig Dreher write the Space Tourists columns for the Union-Bulletin.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Importance of Space Exploration | The Mary … – The Mary Sue

Posted: at 5:17 am

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to scientists like Neil deGrasse Tyson on National Geographics yellow carpet for their FURTHER Frontpresentation about upcoming specials and series.Considering it was just days before the March for Science, it felt right to talk about why the average person should care about things like space exploration, oceanography, and the work of the scientific community.

Tyson, who is every bit as energetic and delightful as youd expect, told me he had a slightly unorthodox outlook on that question. I think its important, he told me, but I will not require that of you. Instead, what I will say is, here is the cost of you not exploring and the benefits of you exploring. Essentially,youre within your rights to not care, but dont pretend that the consequencesarent real. The astrophysicist has been very outspoken about the dangers of science denial, something hes actively working against as a science personality.

One argument against space exploration, the StarTalkhost points out, is the question of Why explore in space when we have problems here on Earth? In response, Tyson paints for us an image that we jokingly referred to as his Allegory of the Cave.

Lets imagine were all back in the cave, so go back into the cave. Were sitting around the fire and somebodys injured or has problems and someone says, I want to go across the meadow to that mountain. Other people in the cave say, No leaving the cave until we solve the cave problems first. We have to solve these first before anybody leaves the cave.

Tyson pauses for a second, and says, That is clearly an embarrassingly short-sighted view for any community to have. He points out that as we are clamoring for resources on this speck we call Earth or fighting over a line in the sand where the buried energy sources are or access to resources that are dwindling, people overlook how space can be a solution.

I look out in space with its limitless energy. And everything thats rare on Earthcommon in space, says Tyson. You know rare earth elements, you mightve heard of them? There are asteroids where they are not rare. Theyre common.

Space science and exploration can feel like something very removed or distant from the regular lives a lot of us live, but thats truly not the case.Addressing the stay in the cave crowd, Tyson concludes, If our conduct on earth is driven by access to resources that are unlimited in space, for you to say, Lets not explore means you have not thought about the problem as broadly as you can and should.

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Tackle Space Exploration with Potatoes in Spaceplan – AppAdvice – AppAdvice

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Tackle Space Exploration with Potatoes in Spaceplan - AppAdvice
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"You're stranded on an alien planet with just potatoes, solar panels, and ingenuity. Surely you can make all of that help you find out where you are."]

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