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An artist's conception of the Starshot Lightsail spacecraft during acceleration by a ground-based laser array. Previous conceptions of lightsails have imagined them being passively pushed by light from the sun, but Starshot's laser-based approach requires rethinking the sail's shape and composition so it won't melt or tear during acceleration.Astronomers have been waiting decades for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which promises to peer farther into space than ever before. But if humans want to actually reach our nearest stellar neighbor, they will need to wait quite a bit longer: a probe sent to Alpha Centauri with a...

‘Voyage’ could’ve been something more, but then again it could’ve been much worse.Everyone’s favorite Swedish band is back. Forty years after releasing their last album, the legendary group ABBA — named after Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — have reunited to produce their latest album “Voyage.”Why now? Are any of the ABBA members in sudden need of more fame and fortune? Was their legacy in doubt? Were the endless royalties from their hit single “Dancing Queen” and their hit musical “Mamma Mia!” not enough?On the contrary, “Voyage” was the result of Benny and Björn (the band’s...

Madagascar was first settled and founded by approximately 30 women, mostly of Indonesian descent, who may have sailed off course in a wayward vessel 1200 years ago. The discovery negates a prior theory that a large, planned settlement process took place on the island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of Africa. Traditionally it was thought to have been settled by Indonesian traders moving along the coasts of the Indian Ocean. Most native Madagascar people today, called Malagasy, can trace their ancestry back to the founding 30 mothers, according to an extensive new DNA study published in the latest...

We are commemorating one of the most famous ships in the world in the lead up to the 100th anniversary of the demise of the Titanic said Orla Saul. To bring this special and unique story to life we are delighted to have Susie Miller over from Ireland. Miller runs Titanic Tours in Belfast and is here today to tell us the most intriguing, poignant and personal story about Titanic. The 100th anniversary coincides with the opening of the Titanic visitor centre on 31st March in Belfast. Some people don’t know that the Titanic was built in Belfast said Ms....

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A journey from Earth to Mars could eventually take just 39 days -- cutting current travel time nearly six times -- according to a rocket scientist who has the ear of the US space agency. Franklin Chang-Diaz, a former astronaut and a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says reaching the Red Planet could be dramatically quicker using his high-tech VASIMR rocket, .. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket -- to give its full name -- is quick becoming a centerpiece of NASA's future strategy as it looks to private firms to help meet the...

El Niño May Have Been Factor In Magellan's Pacific VoyageA new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellan's historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions -- including what we now know as El Niño -- which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a thousand miles from his intended destination. (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (May 16, 2008) — A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellan's historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely...

Source: Penn State Date: June 7, 2007 Caribbean Frogs Started With A Single, Ancient Voyage On A Raft From South America Science Daily — Nearly all of the 162 land-breeding frog species on Caribbean islands, including the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico, originated from a single frog species that rafted on a sea voyage from South America about 30-to-50-million years ago, according to DNA-sequence analyses led by a research group at Penn State, which will be published in the 12 June 2007 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and posted in the journal's online early edition...

Voyage to prove pharaohs traded cocaine By Tom Leonard in New York Last Updated: 2:21am BST 30/05/2007 An adventurer who believes that ancient man regularly crossed the Atlantic Ocean 14,000 years ago plans to recreate such a voyage in a 41ft raft made of reeds and eucalyptus tree branches. Basing his theory on the thinnest of historical evidence, Dominique Gorlitz believes that the discovery of traces of tobacco and cocaine in the tomb of the pharaoh Rameses II proves that there was trade between the Old and New Worlds. He also claims that 14,000-year-old cave paintings in Spain show that,...

Source: University of Pennsylvania Date: April 23, 2007 Historian Discovers Evidence Documenting First European Voyage Up The Delaware Science Daily — A University of Pennsylvania scholar has pinpointed 1616 as the year of the first European voyage up the Delaware River. Jaap Jacobs, a senior fellow at Penn's McNeil Center for Early American Studies, detailed his findings in a paper, "Truffle Hunting with an Iron Hog: The First Dutch Voyage up the Delaware River," recently presented as part of the McNeil Center Seminar Series. Scholarly discoveries tend to be the outcome of a deliberate process, but serendipity played an important...

An ancient voyage in just two months Thursday, March 29, 2007ÖMER ERBİL A replica of the oldest known shipwreck, Uluburun II, was built by the 360 Degree Historical Research Association in Urla, İzmir and displayed in Bodrum as part of activities marking the 80th anniversary of Sabotage Day in July. Journey from Foça to Marseille.. A group, who built the replica of ships used by old Foça people 2,600 year ago, will set to sail next year. The voyage will last two months. The 360 Degree Research Group, which had built the replica of the oldest known shipwreck, Uluburun II,...

A 3,000-year-old voyage of discovery JENNIFER VEITCHMen would have used this type of log boat to fish and hunt, as well as to trade goods with others, as this drawing exhibits. Picture: Courtesy Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust IN ANCIENT times, when Scotland was virtually covered in dense forest, there was only one way to get around. Traveling by boat helped early Scots to find food and trade goods with their neighbours. The work to extract the boat from the river bed is slow and painstaking. Picture: Courtesy Historic Scotland Now, with the excavation of a 3,000-year-old log boat, archaeologists...

Immortality is within our grasp . . . In Fantastic Voyage, high-tech visionary Ray Kurzweil teams up with life-extension expert Terry Grossman, M.D., to consider the awesome benefits to human health and longevity promised by the leading edge of medical science--and what you can do today to take full advantage of these startling advances. Citing extensive research findings that sound as radical as the most speculative science fiction, Kurzweil and Grossman offer a program designed to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that you should be in good health and good spirits when the more extreme...

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2006 – When the USS James E. Williams sets sail from Norfolk, Va., tomorrow, it will be a special moment for the family of a top Army noncommissioned officer. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. "Joe" Gainey poses in his Pentagon office next to a portrait of his cousin, James E. Williams, a Medal of Honor recipient and the most decorated sailor in Navy history. A ship named for Williams, the USS James E. Williams, sets sail on its maiden voyage from Norfolk, Va., May 2. Photo by Kathleen T. Rhem  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

ABOARD USS TARAWA, At sea in the Indian Ocean (NNS) -- Four thousand Sailors and Marines of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 1 entered the 7th Fleet area of operations Jan. 12 en route to their homeport of San Diego after completing their assigned mission in the 5th Fleet region. The ESG-1 flagship, USS Tarawa (LHA 1), the amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland (LPD 7), the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) and the embarked Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit spent more than four months in-theatre. “ESG-1 was simply impressive,” said Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh, Commander...

The Crimes of Christopher Columbus Dinesh D'Souza Multiculturalism is presented by its advocates in the schools and universities as a benign alternative to monoculturalism. Historian Peter Stearns insists that the multicultural debate "is between those who think there are special marvelous features about the Western tradition that students should be exposed to, and others who feel it's much more important for students to have a sense of the way the larger world has developed." This is the unmistakable appeal of multiculturalism: it is obviously better to study many cultures rather than a single culture, to have diverse points of...

Undeniable Evidence - Arthur's Voyage To The Otherworld In 1983 we wrote a book of several hundred pages with the intention of publishing it almost straightaway. After some of the horrendous attacks upon the Project we decided to hold off and involved ourselves in all manner of related research, which meant that the other things came to the fore. (One of these was Artorius Rex Discovered.) Nevertheless, our early attempts - before linking up with Jim Michael, Dr. Lee Pennington and friends in the USA - to deal with Prince Madoc and King Arthur 2nd's voyage to North America are...