Boston Star
BostonStar.com Saturday 17th May 2008 Edition 138/2008
Front Page Space Science News
Russian spaceship delivers food, water to International Space Station


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Moscow, May 17 (Xinhua) A Russian cargo spaceship has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver food, water, fuel and equipment for the crew, the Mission Control said...


Scientists identified geological faults in quake-hit region in China a year back
Washington, May 17 : A research carried out by earth scientists last summer had determined that geological faults in the Sichuan Basin, China, are sufficiently long to sustain a strong ground-shaking earthquake, an estimate which proved to be right when a massive quake struck the region on May...


Substantial Aftershock Rocks Weary Chinese
Posted on: Saturday, 17 May 2008, 12:00 CDT YINGXIU, China -- A powerful aftershock knocked out roads and communications in some of the most quake-ravaged parts of central China on Friday as...


Carnival Ride Collapse Injures 18
Posted on: Saturday, 17 May 2008, 12:00 CDT An investigation was under way Saturday into a California carnival ride collapse that injured 18 people, three seriously. The incident happened Friday...


US House Speaker Visit Iraq for Talks on Bilateral Issues - TV
Posted on: Saturday, 17 May 2008, 12:00 CDT Within its 1200 gmt newscast on 17 May, Dubai Al-Sharqiyah Television in Arabic carries the following announcer-read report: "US House Speaker Nancy...


Russian supply ship docks to space station
CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) — A Russian supply ship docked to the international space station on Friday, delivering more than 2 tons of food, water, equipment and scientific...


Space research can improve life on Earth
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Alexander Peslyak) - Countries sending their citizens into space for the first time proudly call them their Gagarins, with good reason. Yuri Gagarin became the...


Beautiful sunsets and a great spaceship motel
Phoenix , the Space Lodge was built in 1963. It seems like such a long time ago that we said 'wow' — genuine and without guile: 'Look Mom, a spaceship motel!' — about things that are marvelous...


Global warming and the Earth
www.eia.doe.gov . However, EIA notes it's impossible to track those imports and figure out the origin of gas sold at any particular station. John Porretto AP Business Writer, Houston As we...


Russian cargo spaceship docks with ISS
A Russian cargo spaceship has docked with the International Space Station (ISS), the Mission Control near Moscow said on Saturday. The Progress M-14 spaceship docked with the station at 01:39 Moscow...


Calif. Wine Pioneer Mondavi Dies
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 21:00 CDT Robert Mondavi, a pioneer in California's wine industry, died Friday at his home in Yountville, Calif., a spokeswoman said. The Napa Valley vintner was 94,...


Supply ship docks to space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A Russian supply ship docked to the international space station on Friday, delivering more than 2 tons of food, water, equipment and scientific experiments.The three men aboard...


Robert Mondavi, California Winemaking Patriarch, Dies at 94
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 21:00 CDT SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Robert Mondavi, the man hailed as the ambassador of the Napa Valley and the godfather of California wine, no longer owned the winery that...


SpaceX Targets Late June for Next Rocket Launch Attempt
The first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket visibly makes contact with the booster's second stage engine nozzle during separation during a March 20, 2007 launch. Credit:...


Jelena gets past Venus
ROME: Serbian fourth seed, and defending champion, Jelena Jankovic dismantled Venus Williams' power game yesterday to advance to the semi-finals of the WTA Rome International, 5-7, 6-3,...


Serena Williams pulls out of Italian Open, Venus loses
(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)Venus Williams, of the United States, returns a backhand to Serbia's Jelena Jankovic during their quarter final match at the Italian Open women's tennis tournament in Rome,...


Poring over Mars pictures
The folks behind NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have put out pictures of the area where the Mars Polar Lander disappeared nine years ago - and...


UTD Heads To Mars To Test For Life
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Experts from the University of Texas at Dallas are holding their breath as one of their devices hurtles toward Mars.The equipment onboard the spacecraft, a spectrometer, is...


Microsoft unveils its visual guide to the universe
Redmond: This is a different sort of Maps to the Stars. Microsoft has taken the wraps off an astonishingly vast visual guide to the universe that is powered by some of the world's best telescopes....


No Oil Production Increase
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 15:00 CDT A top Bush administration official said Saudi Arabia has rejected the U.S. president's request to increase the kingdom's oil production to offset gas...


Florida Rights Activists Laud California Gay Marriage Ruling
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 15:00 CDT By Linda Kleindienst and John Holla, South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 16--Florida gay rights activists hailed the California Supreme Court decision Thursday...


Obama Hits Back at Bush, McCain
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 15:00 CDT Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, campaigning in South Dakota, fired back at comments made by U.S. President George Bush and Sen. John McCain....


Biggest Little Announcement in NASA History
May 15, 2008 · Last week NASA issued a press release promising that on May 14th, they would "Announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50...


Science debate moves on
Quantum fluctuations in space, science, exploration and other cosmic fields... served up regularly by MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle since 2002. Alan Boyle covers the physical sciences,...


NASA venture capitalist named Legacy Venture managing partner
, as its new managing partner. Palo Alto-based Legacy Venture says it is a community of more than 200 philanthropists, foundations and nonprofits "using venture-capital investments and...


Marriage Ruling is a Key Advance for Civil Liberties
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 12:00 CDT The following editorial appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on Friday, May 16: ___ The California Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that marrying someone of...


Dust blocks brightness of universe
The result will likely cause many astronomers to revise their calculations of the intrinsic brightness of many celestial objects, Driver said. Until now, many astronomers thought stars and galaxies...


Vote! Where Would You Land on Mars
NASA's Mars Phoenix lander will land near the martian north pole to probe for the ingredients of life, but the south pole holds its own secrets. Both poles hold frozen water and carbon dioxide ice,...


Precious Movie Team Aiming For The Stars
The Kiwi team behind a film on the life of weightlifter Precious McKenzie are eyeing up director Lee Tamahori and actor Sir Anthony Hopkins for the project. Tauranga's Lance Morcan and his son...


Brrr! Mars colder than expected
By By Charles Q. Choi Peering beneath the ice at the north pole of Mars has now revealed the Red Planet may be surprisingly colder than was thought.Any liquid water that might exist on Mars therefore...


Youngest Supernova In Our Galaxy
The most recent supernova in our galaxy has been discovered by tracking the rapid expansion of its remains. This result, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy...


NEC Awarded Contract for New Earth Simulator System
Tokyo, Japan, May 12, 2008 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation today announced that it has been awarded the contract to build the "new Earth Simulator" ultra high-speed computing system for the Japan...


Investigator to the Stars Is Convicted in Wiretaps
LOS ANGELES — Anthony Pellicano, the ripped-from-a-pulp-novel private eye who made himself an indispensable fixer for Hollywood stars and moguls, was found guilty in federal court Thursday of...


Down-to-earth Dennen to share his rocker side
Seattle is Brett Dennen's kind of town. Not only was KMTT-FM/The Mountain the first station in the country to put his song "She's Mine" onto its playlist, but he's also played here several times over...


Soon, 3 D
WASHINGTON: Scientists are developing technology that could one day help in building three dimensional 'super road maps' of planets and...


Lack of Vitamin D Linked to Breast Cancer
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 03:00 CDT Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, say they have shown a clear association between breast cancer and deficient exposure to sunlight....


Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan Lead Spurs to 99-80 Game 6 Victory
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 03:00 CDT By Elizabeth White, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN ANTONIO - Must-win situations are not a familiar place for the San Antonio Spurs. They survived one Thursday...


Universe is twice as bright as previously thought
London, May 16 (ANI): Astronomers from UK Universities working with colleagues from Germany and Australia have calculated that the Universe is actually twice as bright as previously...


Virtual Earth puts human face on data
In practice the web page talks to a web service, which talks to the database. That returns a data set to the service, which punts it up to the web page and the data is displayed on a map retrieved...


Pellicano, private eye to the stars, convicted of racketeering, conspiracy
Private investigator Anthony Pellicano was found guilty Thursday of scores of federal charges for conspiring to wiretap and intimidate dozens of celebrities and business executives, including...


Barratt reveals the house that doesn
A cutaway image of the Barratt Green House Barratt Developments has unveiled what it calls the first zero-carbon house developed by a volume housebuilder.Barratt's Green House, which has been built...


County was once
"It is raining in Wenchuan. The county used to be a paradise on Earth As I flip through the photos taken during a trip last November, all I feel is sorrow."So reads a blog by Dazhedaren...


New idea could solve black hole mystery
By By Robert Roy Britt Physicists have come up with a way to explain how information could escape from a black hole, an idea that's been debated since the 1970s. But the new proposal leaves the...


Are prediction markets legit
on the future of prediction markets - or, to use the CFTC's term, "event contracts." The commission wants to know whether it should be regulating these markets, and if so, what rules should be put in...


Farm Bill Passes Easily in House
Posted on: Thursday, 15 May 2008, 15:00 CDT By DIANA MARRERO Washington -- The House passed a $290 billion farm bill Wednesday by a 318-106 vote, enough to override a likely veto from President...


McCain Envisions Iraq Victory, With Most Troops Out By 2013
Posted on: Thursday, 15 May 2008, 18:00 CDT WASHINGTON _ Sen. John McCain predicted Thursday that most U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of his first term, leaving behind a fragile but...


NASA moves to save computers from swarming ants
Johnson Space Center has called in extermination experts to keep the pests out of their sensitive and critical systems. The ants have been causing all kinds of trouble in five Texas counties in and...


Sleuth to the stars convicted of racketeering
Los Angeles - In a closely watched Hollywood case, private investigator Anthony Pellicano was convicted Thursday by a jury that found that he used illegal methods in investigations for celebrity...


Russia launches Progress spacecraft to resupply Space Station
Zarya module at 21:36 GMT tomorrow evening. Progress spacecraft are launched every few months to deliver new supplies to the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the Station. The current crew aboard the...


NASA Faces Rocket Test Delays for New Spaceship
NASA is expecting delays for the first tests of the rocket that will replace its aging space shuttles after they retire in 2010, agency officials said...