Happy Hump Day

Happy Wednesday! After working Sunday, it's a short Wed and Thurs work week this week. Looking forward to attending the Western NC Bluegrass and BBQ Festival this weekend. http://www.agr.state.nc.us/markets/facilities/markets/asheville/documents/BBQ2010Flier.pdf
No one seems to want to go. I won't force my wife Jaye Deane to go if she doesn't want to. AM I NOT MERCIFUL?!?!?! (Joaquin Phoenix in 'Gladiator')
My sister Brenda is running in this weekend's "Cooper River Run"- http://www.bridgerun.com/ - Good luck Brenda!!

To my other sister, thanks for emailing me, Suzy!! MAKE ME SOME ADOBO!!


Here's some stuff I saw on the ol interweb today and this week...

More than 1 million baby slings made by Infantino were recalled Wednesday after claims linking them to three infant deaths. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said babies could suffocate in the soft fabric slings. The agency urged parents to immediately stop using the slings for babies under 4 months.
The recall involves 1 million Infantino "SlingRider" and "Wendy Bellissimo" slings in the United States and 15,000 in Canada

A story floating around the internet is stating that the food portions on the plates of Jesus and his disciples in the famous depiction of "The Last Supper" has increased over the years. Historians believe the actual meal was much less at that time than depicted in recent paintings.

Many outlets are reporting that actor Chris Evans (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in the previous 'Fantastic Four' movies) has accepted the role of "Captain America for next year's origin movie and "Avengers" movie in 2012.

Box office totals are up a strong 9% from the comparable period last year. Speaking of which,

Movie w/ this weekend stake /// Overall
1. Alice In Wonderland $2,760,338 /// $268.2
2. Bounty Hunter, The $1,448,620 /// $22.1
3. Diary Of A Wimpy Kid $1,035,343 /// $23.2
4. Repo Men $605,025 /// $6.7
5. She's Out Of My League $591,781 /// $20.3
6. Green Zone $570,760 /// $25.4
7. Shutter Island $425,875 /// $116.2
8. Avatar $358,514 /// $737.3
9. Remember Me $272,797 /// $14.2
10. Our Family Wedding $240,718 /// $13.8


Since its Friday release, 'Twilight' fans have purchased 4 million copies of the 'New Moon' disc....

Whitney Matheson's blog over at USA Today's "Pop Candy" (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/index) is reporting that Warner Bros. and Blockbuster have renewed their agreement, which means you can rent their titles before they're available on Netflix.

Sting, Elton John, Lady Gaga and Dame Shirley Bassey will perform together at Carnegie Hall, as part of the bi-annual Rainforest Fund benefit concert on May 13. The event will mark the 21st birthday of the charitable organization founded by Sting and Trudie Styler to help protect and preserve the world's threatened rainforest areas.

and finally, The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world's hottest chili. After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday. The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world's spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India's northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat. It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. "The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.

HAPPY FRIDAY AFTERNOON!

Happy Friday Afternoon! What an unusual day at work today. It looks like it's gonna be a long weekend.....

Here are some things on the old webnet I saw in between the weirdness..

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Sarah McLachlan has announced that she will release her first album in seven years, "The Laws of Illusion," on June 15

A lesbian high school student embroiled in a legal flap over her school's prom policy has received a $30,000 scholarship on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Not satisfied with living in Florida, Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey wants to move to Washington, D.C. to become the nation's first vampire president. Sharkey, 45, spent Friday on a Greyhound bus with his new fiancee, Audrianna Foster, a 19-year-old girl from Ohio he met online. She too believes she is a vampire, or vampyre. "I haven't dated a girl older than 19 since 2006," said the Tampa man as his 19-year-old daughter and his 2-year-old grandson met him at the Greyhound station. "It's good to be me." "The Impaler" claims he's a direct descendant of Vlad II the Impaler, better known as Dracula. He was scheduled Monday to announce his plans to file paperwork to run for President of the United States in 2012. He recently switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican so he can run with the G.O.P. He ran for Governor of Minnesota in 2006 and also had short-lived bids for U.S. Senate in 2000, U.S. President in 2004, and U.S. President in 2008.
Read more at http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=85106&catid=35

From the AP - A jury has awarded a North Carolina woman $9 million from her husband's lover after ruling the other woman ruined their marriage. The News & Record of Greensboro reports the jury ruled this week in 60-year-old Cynthia Shackelford's alienation of affection case. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that allows jilted spouses to sue over affairs. Shackelford says her husband was a Greensboro attorney when he started an affair with Anne Lundquist before separating from his wife in April 2005. Lundquist didn't respond to a message left by the newspaper. Shackelford's lawyer says she might not get the full $9 million, but Shackelford wanted to send a message that the sanctity of marriage should be respected.

Computer data from a Toyota Prius that crashed in suburban New York City show that at the time of the accident the throttle was open and the driver was not applying the brakes, U.S. safety officials said Thursday. The disclosure prompted an angry response from the police captain investigating the cause of the accident. He said his probe was not over and driver error had not been established. "For any agency to release data and to draw conclusions without consulting with the law enforcement agency that brought this to light could be self-serving," said Capt. Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison, N.Y., force.

ANOTHER shocking study reveals that part of happiness is making more money that the next guy. Study researcher Christopher Boyce in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick in England says one key to happiness might be whether you make more than your peers, regardless of whether that income is six figures or just a mediocre take-home, a new study finds.

Two women in Phoenix are in critical condition with hundreds of bee stings after a swarm attacked them while they were out for an evening walk. A witness tells KTVK-TV she heard screaming and saw the women lying in the street covered in bees from head to toe. A man jumped in to help and was also stung. All three were hospitalized, and the two women first attacked are in critical condition. Phoenix firefighters searched for the hive and eventually found it and took it down

A majority of Americans are willing to accept cuts in mail delivery days to preserve the U.S. Postal Service, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found. Yet older people, who use the mail most often, are more willing than younger Americans to reduce mail service from six days to five. The Postal Service plans to seek approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Congress to stop mail delivery on Saturdays. Federal law requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days a week to every U.S. household.

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster says he and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum are ready to file a federal lawsuit if health care reform legislation passes. The U.S. House plans to vote on the plan Sunday. McMaster said Friday that he expects attorneys general to join the lawsuit. He and other GOP counterparts have denounced the legislation. McMaster says he wants to challenge an exemption that would keep Nebraska from paying for Medicaid costs. He says even if that provision is dropped, he will sue over the requirement for everyone to buy health insurance. McMaster says both provisions violate state sovereignty. Both McMaster and McCollum are running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in their states.

A federal appeals court says Anna Nicole Smith's estate will receive none of the more than $300 million that she claimed her late billionaire husband had promised her. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest stop in the 15-year legal battle over the $1.6 billion estate that oil magnate J. Howard Marshall left after his 1995 death at age 90. Smith had married Marshall the previous year.

The Dutch prime minister Friday denounced as "irresponsible" a claim by a retired U.S. general that gay Dutch soldiers were partly to blame for allowing Europe's worst massacre since World War II.

and finally, From the SHOCKING! NO! REALLY?!?!?! File - Being around a pretty woman can make men take more risks, a new study finds. Researchers looked at the risk-taking behaviors of 96 young adult men, with an average age of nearly 22, by asking them to do both easy and difficult tricks on skateboards. First, the young men performed the tricks in front of another man, then in front of a young, attractive female. (The attractiveness of the woman was independently assessed by 20 male raters.) The testosterone levels of the skateboarders were measured after each trick. Testosterone is a male sex hormone that fuels sexual interest, arousal and activity, and is also associated with increased competition and risk-taking. When skateboarders attempt tricks, they make a split-second decision about whether to abort the trick or try to land it, based on a mid-air evaluation of the likelihood of success and on the physical costs that failure might bring - such as falling flat on their face. It was that moment the researchers sought to examine, because it resembles the type of risky decisions that young men make when behind the steering wheel of a car or when in physical confrontations with each other. As a group, young males are at the highest risk of early death of any group in industrialized countries in part because they are the biggest risk-takers. As the researchers expected, the skateboarders took greater risks in the presence of the attractive female, even when they knew there was a greater chance they could crash. Along with this increased risk-taking, the young men had higher testosterone levels when they performed in front of the female than when they did their jumps in front of another guy. "This experiment provides evidence for an effect that has existed in art, mythology, and literature for thousands of years: Beautiful women lead men to throw caution to the wind," wrote the authors of the study, Richard Ronay and William von Hippel, of the University of Queensland in Australia. "These findings suggest that, for men, the adaptive benefits gained by enticing mates and intimidating rivals may have resulted in evolved hormonal and neurological mechanisms that facilitated greater risk-taking in the presence of attractive women," they added.

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have a great weekend! Email me- subscribe- comment
John

Happy Friday!

Despite it being my weekend to work, HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Here are some things I saw on the ol interweb this AM
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The Food and Drug Administration announced regulations Thursday that ban the sale and marketing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to people younger than 18 — measures that, for the most part, already have been implemented by the states.

The Boy Scouts of America knew of at least 1,000 suspected child molesters from 1965 to 1985 active within their ranks and tried to hush it up, an attorney in a sexual abuse lawsuit charges. The accusations came in the opening day arguments in a $14 million civil suit in Portland, Ore.

The Stone Temple Pilots have released "Between the Lines"- the 1st single from their forth coming self titled ablum, "Stone Temple Pilots". It's the group's first album of new material in nine years. Release date is May 25th.

ABC's version of "Star Search" is on hold again. The network couldn't come to terms with Paula Abdul.

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more later if it comes up!

John

Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday. Well, "The Dance" began a few minutes ago (@12noon ET). Let the "madness" begin..... Here are some things I saw on the net a few minutes ago...

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NCAA thinking about tinkering with its beloved, billion-dollar basketball spectacle? The organization is currently investigating the possibility of expanding the tournament field, to as many as 96 teams, as early as next year (for you non-bracket heads out there, 65 teams play in the current field).

Who lead's J.D. Power and Associates long-term vehicle dependability study? Nope, not Honda. Not Toyota. Not BMW. Porsche. The German sports car brand took the No. 1 spot in the annual study, which gave it ninth place last year. Lincoln came in second, while Buick and Lexus tied for third. Mercury and Toyota rounded out the top five.

In case you haven't heard. A Walmart store announcement ordering black people to leave brought chagrin and apologies Wednesday from leaders of the company, which has built a fragile trust among minority communities there. A few in teh community have predictabbly they plan to boycott the retailer until they're assured the issue has been addressed so it doesn't happen again.

Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.The emails tell recipients that the passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset, urging them to click on an attachment to obtain new login credentials.

The government is announcing a recall of some 1.2 million Graco Harmony High Chairs saying they pose a fall hazard to children.

Sandra Bullock canceled her appearance at the London premiere of "The Blind Side" days after Internet reports alleged she was having trouble in her marriage and that she had left the couple's Southern California home

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gotta go and fill out my census form. I'm claiming the pomeranians like I did on my taxes this year......

J

N.Y. Chef Earns Fans, Critics With Cheese Made From Human Breast Milk - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News - FOXNews.com

N.Y. Chef Earns Fans, Critics With Cheese Made From Human Breast Milk - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News - FOXNews.com

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Felize Monday-dahd! 3/15/10

Happy Monday!

Had an uneventful weekend. Congratulations to the Blue Devils for winning the ACC.
Big kudos to Winthrop and Wofford Universities for making "the dance" into the 64 team NCAA tournament.

My Tarheels made the "Not Invited Tournament" and will face WM & Mary Tuesday.

here are some quick hits I saw on the ol interweb this morning.

Actor Peter Graves has died of natural causes at the age of 83.

The letters A, C, O, R and N are coming off office doors from New York to California. Business cards are being reprinted. New signs with new names are popping up in front of offices. Affiliates of the once mighty liberal activist group ACORN are remaking themselves in a desperate bid to ditch the tarnished name of their parent organization and restore federal grants and other revenue streams that ran dry in the wake of a video scandal. One of the latest groups to adopt a new name is ACORN Housing, long one of the best-funded affiliates. Now, the group is calling itself the Affordable Housing Centers of America. Others changing their names include what were among the largest affiliates: California ACORN is now Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and New York ACORN has become New York Communities for Change. More are expected to follow suit.

Speaking of ACRON, a Dutch political party formed by self-described pedophiles has voted to disband itself after failing for the second time to participate in national elections in June. The group, which sought to lower the age of sexual consent to 12, says it could not get the 600 signatures necessary to win a place on the ballot in a country of 16.5 million. It would need 60,000 votes to win a seat in the 150-member Dutch parliament.

South Park’s 14th season begins this Wednesday night at 10pm ET. It concerns “Sexual Addiction” and features a parody of Tiger Woods.

Here’s your weekend box office estimates per Variety.com

1. Alice In Wonderland $62,000,000
2. Green Zone $14,534,520
3. She's Out Of My League $9,600,000
4. Remember Me $8,281,000
5. Shutter Island $8,140,000
6. Our Family Wedding $7,600,000
7. Avatar $6,600,000
8. Brooklyn's Finest $4,290,000
9. Cop Out $4,230,000
10. Crazies, The $3,650,000

Wayyyy Too Early Saturday Morning - 3/13/2010

well, my Tarheels lost in the first round of the ACC tournament. Even though Coach says he'll play anywhere he's invited to play, doesn't look like we'll even make the NIT (Not Invited Tournament). Though financially, it would be wise for the NIT-ers to invite us with our rabid fan following.

here are some stories I saw on the interweb.....

A group of Republican senators is questioning high salaries and expensive travel bills for executives at the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, raising issues that could jeopardize millions in federal funding for the national charity. The four senators said they were concerned that Roxanne Spillett, the chief executive of a charity that has been closing local clubs for lack of funding was compensated nearly $1 million in 2008. They also questioned why in the same year officials spent $4.3 million on travel, $1.6 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, and $544,000 in lobbying fees. Evan McElroy, senior vice president of communications for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, said the charity's compensation committee follows Internal Revenue Service guidelines for nonprofit organizations. He said Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, analyzed executive compensation and found it was "appropriate for a large, national, tax-exempt, youth organization."

A musical celebrating Ray Charles is headed for Broadway this fall. "Unchain My Heart" will open Nov. 7 with preview performances beginning Oct. 8.

One of the world's largest studies of the contraceptive pill has found that women who have taken it can expect longer lives and are less likely to die from any cause, including cancer and heart disease. Click HERE for the full story.

Germany's sex abuse scandal has now reached Pope Benedict XVI: His former archdiocese disclosed that while he was archbishop a suspected pedophile priest was transferred to a job where he later abused children.

An American seized in Yemen in a sweep of suspected al-Qaida members had been a laborer at six U.S. nuclear power plants, and authorities are investigating whether he had access to sensitive information or materials that would be useful to terrorists. Sharif Mobley, 26, worked for contractors at plants in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland from 2002 to 2008, mostly hauling materials and setting up scaffolding, plant officials said.

According to the fine folks at CBR, Hugo Weaving is in talks to play The Red Skull. Weaving recently worked with director Joe Johnston on "The Wolfman" and will look interesting with his skin flayed off. Weaving also appeared in the Matrix and Lord of the Rings movies.

Director Rupert Wyatt has signed on the helm the "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" remake/series reboot. According to a source at the CBR.com, the film is more directly tied to the original "Planet of the Apes" and has many subtle references to it.

Disney will close Robert Zemeckis' studio ImageMovers Digital. The Marin County California studios will bow early next year. Disney claims the closing is due to 'economic realities.'

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. ruled that the Federal Communications Commission could continue its so-called "program access rule," passed by statute in 1992, that are intended to prevent cable companies from withholding the most desirable channels, particularly sports channels, from rivals; basically stating the companies must continue to make programming they own available to satellite companies.

and finally, this headline from space.com -- Life-Enabling Molecules Spotted in Orion Nebula

The chemical fingerprints of potentially life-building molecules have been detected in the Orion nebula by Europe's Herschel Space Observatory.


The Orion nebula is a nearby stellar nursery, brimming with gas, dust and infant stars. It is known to be one of the most prolific chemical factories in space, although the full extent of its chemistry and the pathways for molecule formation are not well understood.


Researchers have used one of Herschel's instruments, which looks at the cosmos in the far infrared wavelengths of light, to provide more insight into how organic molecules form in space.


By sifting through the pattern of spikes in Orion nebula's light signature, or spectrum, astronomers have identified a few common molecules that are precursors to life-enabling molecules, including water, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, methanol, dimethyl ether, hydrogen cyanide, sulfur oxide and sulfur dioxide. Each spike in the spectrum corresponds to a particular molecule.


"This HIFI spectrum, and the many more to come, will provide a virtual treasure trove of information regarding the overall chemical inventory and on how organics form in a region of active star formation. It harbors the promise of a deep understanding of the chemistry of space once we have the full spectral surveys available," said Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan and the principal investigator of the HEXOS Key Program on Herschel.


Because of Herschel's unique infrared observing abilities, this new spectrum is already an improvement on previous one's taken of the Orion nebula.


"We obtained this spectrum in a few hours and it already beats any other spectrum, at any other wavelength, ever taken of Orion," said Frank Helmich, Herschel HIFI principal investigator of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research.


Built by the European Space Agency, Herschel launched in May 2009 on a mission to scan the universe in the far-infrared range of the spectrum. The observatory is expected to last until 2012 and has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope.


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your ol pal,
John

Thursday 3/11/10

Still feeling horrible today. Tomorrow, a doctor's visit for me- YAY!!!

The new software activation at work is going as well as can be expected.

Gonna take some time off in early April. Got a few options on how I'm gonna "take a break". I'm gonna try to leave the internet for a week. We'll see.

Sat through some of American Idol last night with my wife. I wonder how long it's gonna take before EVERYONE realizes the fix is in for the females this year. ALL fo the male singers this year are pretty sad.

Here are some internet stories that caught my eye way too early this morning.....

Yesterday, as the world learned of the death of one of the 'Corey's' Chuck Norris turned 70!!

Wanna be a 'Smashing Pumpkin'? Lead singer Billy Corgan is holding open auditions for new band members.

Remember "Faith No More"? They're reuniting this summer for a small east coast tour.

See the new trailer for "Tron: Legacy" yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1IpPpB3iWI

What about the new Iron Man 2 trailer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hx6TEqrzHU

Paula Deen's sons are launching a food magazine for men. Why, I don't know.

Warner Bros. is launching development of an action adventure centered on Leonardo da Vinci and set it up with Adrian Askarieh through his Prime Universe banner and Roy Lee and Doug Davison at Vertigo Entertainment.

Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 20 years.

Father of the year award goes to a 51 year old New Jersey man with apocalyptic visions who is accused of terrorizing his family and raping his five daughters. He impregnated three of them. It's reported he beat his children with wooden boards and even moving at one point to avoid child welfare investigators.

And finally, it seems that even in old age, men seem to want sex more than women. According to an article published Wednesday in the journal BMJ (British Medical Journal), 67% of men ages 65 to 74 said they had been sexually active in the past year, compared with just 40% of women in that age group. Everyone knows young men think constantly about sex, but many guys remain interested in sex until they are almost dead: more than one-third of men ages 75 to 85 said they had sex in the past 12 months, compared with just 17% of women in that age group.

New Rocket Engine Could Reach Mars in 40 Days

By Jeremy Hsu
SPACE.com Contributor
posted: 05 March 2010
01:08 pm ET

Future Mars outposts or colonies may seem more distant than ever with NASA's exploration plans in flux, but the rocket technology that could someday propel a human mission to the red planet in as little as 40 days may already exist.

A company founded by former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz has been developing a new rocket engine that draws upon electric power and magnetic fields to channel superheated plasma out the back. That stream of plasma generates steady, efficient thrust that uses low amounts of propellant and builds up speed over time.

"People have known for a long time, even back in the '50s, that electric propulsion would be needed for serious exploration of Mars," said Tim Glover, director of development at the Ad Astra Rocket Company
The rocket technology could drastically cut down the amount of time a spacecraft needs to send astronauts on Mars missions. Instead of half a year, a spacecraft could make the trip in just over a month using the engine and a large enough power source, according to an Ad Astra mission study.

NASA's recent course change has freed up some funding for new propulsion technologies. And the U.S. space agency has not lost sight of the red planet, NASA administrator Charles Bolden told Congress as he presented a new budget last month.

"While we cannot provide a date certain for the first human visit, with Mars as a key long-term destination we can identify missing capabilities needed for such a mission and use this to help define many of the goals for our emerging technology development," Bolden said.

Familiar chemical rockets that burn solid or liquid chemical propellants won't get humans to Mars fast because they would require too much propellant. They can create a huge boost for several minutes at the cost of huge inefficiency — not unlike a speed demon with poor gas mileage.

Slow but steady push

Some satellites and spacecraft already rely upon electric propulsion in their ion engines that create thrust based on energized gas. Similarly, Ad Astra's Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) ionizes gases such as xenon or hydrogen to create superheated plasma stream for thrust.

But VASIMR also has the advantage of relying upon electromagnetic waves to create and energize the plasma, rather than physical electrodes that get worn down due to contact with the superheated plasma. That translates into greater reliability over time and allows for a very dense plasma stream to create more thrust.

VASIMR can also adjust its thrust to speed up or slow down, and even has an "afterburner" mode that provides a temporary high-speed boost at the cost of efficiency.

"Our technology is different," Glover told SPACE.com. "It's one possibility. We certainly think it has the most potential at high power levels."

Yet even the most efficient rocket engine needs a power source. VASIMR may use gas as the propellant, but it also requires an electric power source that can ionize the gas to create its plasma.

I need more power!

A mission trajectory study estimated that a VASIMR-powered spacecraft could reach the red planet within 40 days if it had a 200 megawatt power source. That's 1,000 times more power than what the current VASIMR prototype will use, although Ad Astra says that VASIMR can scale up to higher power sources.

The real problem rests with current limitations in space power sources. Glover estimates that the Mars mission scenario would need a power source that can produce one kilowatt (kW) of power per kilogram (kg) of mass, or else the spacecraft could never reach the speeds required for a quick trip.

Existing power sources fall woefully short of that ideal. Solar panels have a mass to power ratio of 20 kg/kW. The Pentagon's DARPA science lab hopes to develop solar panels that can achieve 7 kg/KW, and stretched lens arrays might reach 3 kg/KW, Glover said. That's good enough for VASIMR to transport cargo around low-Earth orbit and to the moon, but not to fly humans to Mars.

Ad Astra sees nuclear power as the likeliest power source for a VASIMR-powered Mars mission, but the nuclear reactor that could do the job remains just a concept on paper. The U.S. only ever launched one nuclear reactor into space back in 1965, and it achieved just 50 kg/kW.

A way forward

VASIMR and the necessary power sources could get a boost in the coming years. NASA's new five-year budget includes more than $3 billion for developing heavy-lift and propulsion technologies, as well as a Game Changing Innovation program that similarly targets next-gen propulsion and power sources.

The U.S. space agency's new chief tech guru has also emphasized propulsion as a critical area, under NASA's new Space Technology program.

"The budget's emphasis on developing advanced technologies to make space exploration easier and cheaper is very encouraging to us," Glover noted.

VASIMR reached a milestone late last year by achieving 200 kilowatts of power with the VX-200 prototype. Since then, Ad Astra has worked on the flight-capable VF-200 version that could undergo testing at the International Space Station (ISS) within the next several years.

As for getting VASIMR into space, Ad Astra has discussed possible launch options with commercial spaceflight providers.

"Anybody who wants to send anything to ISS after the shuttle retires is talking with SpaceX, and Orbital Sciences," Glover said.

Another Reason Why Batman is Better Than Superman

A copy of Batman's debut in a 1939 Detective Comics book, seen here in this Heritage Auction Galleries(HAG) handout has sold for 1.075 million dollars, narrowly beating another huge auction this week for a Superman comic.
(AFP/HAG-HO)

NFL Overtime Rules To Possibly Change

League could change postseason overtime format
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- An NFL spokesman says the league could change its overtime format for playoff games at a meeting next month.
Greg Aiello said Saturday that under the new format, both teams would get the ball at least once unless the first team with the ball scores a touchdown. If the first team with the ball makes a field goal and the other team ties the game, action would continue until a team scores again.

Under the current rules, the first team to score wins.

The competition committee will discuss the new concept with teams and players at league meetings March 21-24 in Orlando, Fla., when it could come to a vote. At least two thirds of the teams would need to agree to the changes for new rules to be adopted.

The competition committee met with the players' union and players Thursday during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Discussion continued when the competition committee met with a general managers' advisory committee Friday.

The debate about the rule gained steam after the NFC Championship Game, when New Orleans beat Minnesota 31-28 in overtime and Brett Favre's Vikings never got the ball in the extra period. Under the proposed rule, Minnesota would have had another possession because it didn't allow a touchdown.

Overtime was adopted for regular-season games in 1974, and the sudden-death format allowed games to end in a tie if neither team scored in 15 minutes. Overtime for playoff games always has been sudden death.

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press