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British engineers have unveiled plans for the world's first 1,000-mph car, a muscular streak of gunmetal and orange designed not to break the world land speed record but to shatter it. Bloodhound SSC, named after the British cold war supersonic air defence missiles, will attempt to beat the existing record by more than 250mph.

The £12m car is to be announced today by Lord Drayson, the science minister. Working from an aircraft hangar in Bristol, the team's engineers have been working on the project in secret for the past 18 months. Calculations suggest the car could reach 1,050mph, fast enough to outrun a bullet from a .357 Magnum revolver. The car was proposed by Drayson, a racing car enthusiast, as a project to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers, who are in desperately short supply in UK. The Bloodhound team plans to have the car built within a year, with the record attempt expected in three years.

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LONDON (AP) - She sent her first e-mail in 1976. She has her own Web site. And on Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II uploaded video to YouTube during a visit to Google's British headquarters. The company celebrated the queen's visit by creating a special version of its google.co.uk home page, which featured a silhouette of her head as the second "G" and a regal crown atop the "E" in their logo.

The queen, 82, herself has a presence on YouTube - she launched the Royal Channel in December. There are 54 videos on the channel, which range from the Queen's 1957 Christmas message to a day in the life of Prince Charles. On Thursday, she uploaded archive footage to the channel of a 1969 reception at Buckingham Palace for British Olympians. The monarch has reigned since 1952. According to the Buckingham Palace Web site, the queen sent her first e-mail from a computer on an army base, well before the widespread use of the Internet.

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Desperate attempts are underway to save a baby humpback whale which is trying to bond with yachts in Sydney harbour, after mistaking the boats for its mother. The two week old calf, which has been separated from its real mother, was spotted nuzzling up to a whale-sized boat in the picturesque Pittwater waterway just north of Sydney on Monday.

Rescuers from the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service towed the yacht out to sea hoping to entice the calf to find other whales who would adopt it. Eventually the calf detached itself from the boat, although it remained swimming close to it. However today the baby whale had returned to the Pittwater basin, where spotted swimming “rather energetically” around other yachts in the area.

The race is now on to save it, but wildlife experts are pessimistic about their chances. The calf, which needs urgently to find a mother to suckle to, is in “grim danger” if it does not find a substitute, said John Dengate, a spokesman for the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service. The only option is for the calf to find another pod of whales with a mother who can adopt it. “We’ve wracked our brains to think of some kind of captive approach we can do, by taking it in and rearing it ourselves, but it seems to be impossible in Australia, and possibly around the world,” Mr Dengate said.  read more »

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Groundbreaking yet familiar, part romance, part sci-fi, Pixar's latest work is wonderful and full of wonder. - Kenneth Turan, Times Movie Critic

If Pixar Animation Studios has an enviable record of consistent success -- and with a worldwide box-office gross of $4.3 billion from its eight films, it certainly does -- it's because the company has an uncanny gift for pushing things further without pushing too far. Pixar's adventurous new film, the one-of-a-kind "Wall-E," shows how it's done. Daring and traditional, groundbreaking and familiar, apocalyptic and sentimental, "Wall-E" gains strength from embracing contradictions that would destroy other films. Directed by Pixar stalwart Andrew Stanton, who co-wrote and directed the Oscar-winning "Finding Nemo," "Wall-E" is the latest Pixar film to manage what's become next door to impossible for anyone else: appealing to the broadest possible audience without insulting anyone's intelligence.

The origins of "Wall-E's" story, as related in the film's teaser trailer, go back to 1994, when Pixar honchos held a now-celebrated lunch to spitball story ideas, which became "A Bug's Life," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo." "Wall-E" is the last of that group to get made, in part because elements of it are so unconventional. For one thing, the film's exceptional first half hour or so lives and breathes on screen with just about zero human dialogue. But with the storied Ben Burtt, who did the job on "Star Wars," creating all kinds of noise as the film's sound and character voice designer, as well as music by Thomas Newman, you won't miss those words at all. You also won't miss them because the world of "Wall-E," created by production designer Ralph Eggleston and his team, with the advice of high-powered cinematography consultants Roger Deakins and Dennis Murren, is so remarkable. The time is 800 years in the future and the setting is our own Earth, but it's not an Earth anyone would want to recognize.

Not to put too fine a point on it, our planet is a disaster, a bleak and disheartening ruin where every available surface is covered by towering skyscrapers of trash. It got so bad that Buy n' Large, the conglomerate that has somehow taken charge of the planet, leaned on the entire human population to leave with a "space is the final fun-tier" campaign that featured slogans such as, "Too much garbage in your face? There's plenty of space out in space." Though not likely the main reason the film was made, "Wall-E" can't help but send out a powerful and even frightening environmental message. Though G-rated, its dystopian vision (shot by Jeremy Lasky and Danielle Feinberg) of what the perils of consumer excess have in store for the planet is unnerving without trying too hard.

One reason "Wall-E" is as audience-friendly as it finally is is the presence of the endearing title character, whose name is an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter -- Earth Class. What that means in practical terms is that Wall-E is a robotic trash compactor who has been quietly doing his job attacking Earth's endless mountains of refuse for 700 years. Unless you count his pal, a nameless but convivial roach, Wall-E is the only thing still moving on the entire planet. Given all that, it's to be expected that Wall-E, whose large binocular eyes and narrow neck turn him into a squat, mechanical E.T., has developed a few personal eccentricities over the years. For one thing, he's quite the collector, squirreling away everything from old Rubrik's Cubes to light bulbs to an actual living plant.

More than that, this set-in-his-ways old bachelor robot has developed a fixation with the movies. Not really the movies, but one movie in particular, the only video he's got. It is, of all things, "Hello, Dolly!" and screenwriters Stanton and Jim Reardon had the shrewd idea of opening the film with the jaunty lyric, "Out there is a world outside of Yonkers," as the camera somberly pans both the universe and the ruins of Earth. What really entrances "Wall-E" about "Hello, Dolly!" is the spectacle of people expressing emotion and connection by holding hands. Not a word is spoken, but we understand that this lonely Robinson Crusoe, like so many movie creatures before him, would like nothing better than to hold hands with another entity. And then it happens. A spaceship lands in Wall-E's neighborhood and leaves behind a sleek white oval-shaped probe-droid with bewitching blue eyes named Eve (for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), sent to Earth to find signs of life. High tech and armed with a laser weapon that pulverizes anything in sight, Eve fascinates Wall-E and he nervously scuttles around after her, fearful but intoxicated by her every move.

Though this wordless section of the film, punctuated only by Wall-E's frequent and idiosyncratic croak of "Eve," is in some ways merely a set up for the second half, it is easily the most memorable and distinctive part of the film. This segment, a kind of song without words, is a world-creating work of pure imagination that has been thought out to the nth degree.

"Wall-E's" second half involves the dauntingly overweight humans who have sent the probe (and who are shrewdly not pictured in any publicity material.) They've lived for centuries on a cruise liner-type spaceship called the Axiom run by a barely functional captain (Jeff Garlin) in thrall to a Hal-type eminence called Auto, voiced, in a nod to "Alien," by Sigourney Weaver. This part of the story gets increasingly familiar and sometimes borders on the predictably sentimental. But along with these inevitable elements of calculation, "Wall-E" never loses its sense of wonder: wonder at life, wonder at the universe, and even wonder at the power of computer animation to create worlds unlike any we've seen before. How often do we get to say that in these dispiriting times?

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Images courtesy of Disney/Pixar, mlive.com, hamptonroads.com

Original Source and Video: LA Times

Special Gallery:Showbiz 7s: Movies that inspired 'Wall-E'

Related Article: :'Wall-E' draws design inspiration from Apple

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The U.S. space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew returned to earth Saturday after a successful two-week mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle safely touched down at 11:15 a.m. local time (1515 UTC) at the U.S. space agency's landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern state of Florida.

The mission's highlight was the delivery and installation of a new $1 billion Japanese science laboratory. The 11-meter long lab is now the largest module on the orbiting space station.

The Discovery crew also dropped off a new toilet pump to allow the Russian space station crew to fix their on board facilities. Discovery made 217 orbits and travelled 5.7 million miles around the Earth before it was given the green light to return home yesterday morning.

But on Friday Nasa engineers were forced to carry out last minute checks on the shuttle after astronauts spotted something floating away from their space ship. It turned out be a 12 inch metal clip from the rudder.

After four hours, the crew were told that its absence posed no danger for re-entry - during which temperatures around the shuttle can reach more than 2,500 degrees C.

Extensive checks are carried out on space shuttles before they begin re-entry after Columbia burned up as it entered the atmosphere, killing all seven crew on board, after foam panels in its heat shield were damaged during lift-off.

Commander Mark Kelly brought the shuttle safely back to Earth at 4.15pm (BST) yesterday afternoon through slightly cloudy skies. Television cameras were able to track the shuttle as it made its final approach, landed and deployed its brake parachute.

As Discovery came to a safe stop, Kelly said: "Great to be back." NASA officials described the landing as being as "smooth as it gets".

Astronauts also exchanged a member of the orbital outpost's permanent crew. American astronaut Greg Chamitoff remained on the space station for a six-month mission. He replaced U.S. astronaut Garrett Reisman who returned home after 95 days in space.

Reisman's wife, Simone Francis, was waiting at the Kennedy Space Center. Over the past week, Reisman described in quite romantic terms how much he missed her, calling her "my favourite Earthling".

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Images Courtesy of AP Photo/NASA, BBC News

Original Source: BBC News (with video), The Telegraph, and VOA News

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The next generation iPhone will be released in 22 countries on July 11 - and is cheaper and faster than its predecessor. Apple boss Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPhone 3G at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday morning.
"Just one year after launching the iPhone, we're launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price," he told the conference. The new version will be available through Vodafone in New Zealand, and will roll out in 22 countries on July 11. By the end of 2008 it will be on the market in 70 countries.

Jobs said that the new, thinner iPhone would be "more affordable" for consumers, at US$199 for an 8-gigabyte model, and $299 for a 16GB version. The original, which has now sold out, launched last June at $599 and was reduced to $399. There will be a choice of black or white for the flagship version, although the entry-level 8GB will only be available in black. As expected, the new iPhone will be 3G network capable, meaning higher speed web browsing than the current model. This will make it more competitive in the smartphone market against Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Nokia's N95. Currently Apple enjoys a 20 percent share of the US smartphone market, but only 5 per cent in the rest of the world. The iPhone's slow internet browsing speed has been widely criticised - but it was originally designed with a firm focus on the American market, and 'official carrier' AT&T did not, at that time, have a network that was up to speed with 3G. Other countries, like New Zealand, have been 3G capable for some time.

The new iPhone also comes with GPS satellite navigation built in for location-based services, whereas the previous model used a combination of Wi-Fi and cell tower responses to determine a users' location. In true iTunes Store style, the new App Store - available in 62 countries at launch - will let users download applications directly to their phones. Most will need to be purchased, but Apple promises some free content. iPhone 3G addresses numerous issues with the original, adding a flush-mounted headphone jack and, importantly, increasing battery life. Apple now claims a standby time of 300 hours, with 10 hours talktime on a 2G network or 5 on a 3G network. Enthusiastic web browsers will get five to six hours of surfing, and the battery will play audio for up to 24 hours. iPhone 3G is compatible with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. It supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. It runs simultaneous data and voice connections so it's possible to check email or look up directions while on a call. Push email has now been added with MobileMe, a new web service that pushes email, contacts and calendars from an online 'cloud' to apps on iPhone, iPod Touch, Macs and PCs. Essentially, this means everything is updated without the need to continuously check email or update schedules.

It will cost $140 for individuals with 20GB of storage, or NZ$199 for a 'Family Pack' which has one master account with 20GB and four family member accounds with 5GB each. Free 60 trials will be available online, and current .Mac account holders will be automatically upgraded to the new service. For business, in an intelligent which makes the iPhone more corporate-friendly, it is now compatible with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, as well as remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to networks.

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Photos courtesy of AP

Original Source: New Zealand Herald

View Photos: Slideshow

Watch Video: Steve Jobs reveals iPhone 3G

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The Discovery Channel marks the 50th anniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration with “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions”, a six-part, three-night series crafted from what a network news release describes as "NASA's own secret film vaults."

As fliers who weren't involved in, you know, bombing anything, yet were continually putting their own lives at risk, astronauts were especially attractive: Indeed, they were potentially leading the country into a post-national, interstellar future, when we would all be simply citizens of Earth and aliens would come only from other planets. Wasn't John Glenn's spacecraft called the Friendship 7?

That is the spirit here. Although "When We Left Earth" covers the entirety of NASA missions from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo, from Skylab to Hubble, this is not an in-depth history of a large, complicated and often politically charged subject but a moving-picture book of a great, sometimes hair-raising, even deadly adventure. Most of the surviving main players are here, the oldest and boldest now white-haired (if haired at all), but inspired to youthfulness by reminiscence; clearly, they were in it for the fun. And it isn't so much that the pictures illustrate the story as that the story gives the pictures context. But even forgetting the context, it's quite a show. The NASA cameramen, including the astronauts themselves, didn't just point and shoot; they worked with style and sensitivity, and there is a poetry in the images that matches the essence of its huge and elevated subject.

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Photos courtesy of NASA

Original Source: LA Times

An excerpt of "When We Left Earth", Discovery’s series on NASA’s 50 years

Today the U.S. marks 40 years since the assassination of Senator Robert F Kennedy, known as Bobby, as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination.

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Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was Maryland's first female lieutenant governor, is still moved by the strangers who approach her to describe how her father inspired them. "Not a day goes by that someone doesn't come up to me and say they were affected by my father's legacy in some way," Townsend, now 56, said during an interview this week at a Lutherville coffee shop.

Forty years ago, Kennedy was leaving a victory celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he was felled by an assassin's bullets. Kennedy had just won the California Democratic primary for president. He died on June 6, 1968 at age 42. His death shattered his family, people across the nation and a generation of young idealists who had looked to him with hope during a decade of great upheaval. Though shaken, many went on to follow his path. Today, notable Marylanders point to his legacy of social justice, integrity and courage as an enduring inspiration for their lives and deeds.

Robert Kennedy's death came two months after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and five years after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was slain in Dallas. Tydings, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, worked closely with Kennedy when he was U.S. attorney general in his brother's administration. Of all the Kennedy memorabilia lining the walls of his Washington office, Tydings cherishes a photo of him and RFK taken during a hearing of the Senate Committee of the District of Columbia. Home improvement operators were preying on city dwellers, remembers Tydings. In the photo, Kennedy is staring ahead, his eyes penetrating. "If you look at him, that's the real Bobby Kennedy," he said. "Really worried about protecting those who needed to be protected; willing to wade in where angels fear to tread. Well, there were not many like him."

When her uncle was assassinated, Kathleen was 12. Shortly after, her father wrote her a letter she has framed and hung in her front hall. It said: "As the eldest of the Kennedy grandchildren, you have a special responsibility to Joe and John and to all the grandchildren and the country. Be kind to others and serve our country. Love, Daddy." "What's interesting and really amazing about that letter is the lack of bitterness and anger and resentment," she said. "What is more compelling about that letter, even more so than 'work for your country' is 'move forward.' Don't choose anger. It is a very strong message."

Now a married mother of four daughters, Townsend lives in Baltimore County. She teaches at Georgetown University, serves on various boards and remains fixed on her father's belief in politics as the highest of callings. "What I was most struck with was his notion of democracy," she said. "His notion that government is not something that does things to you, but for you. He had this wonderful heart, but what he understood is if you are going to have real change, you need to change the laws, you need to change politics."

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Photos courtesy of Twp

Original Source: Baltimore Sun

Footage: Bobby Kennedy's last speech

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CAMBRIDGE - Acclaimed author J.K. Rowling, whose boy wizard captured the interest of countless readers with the "Harry Potter" series, urged Harvard graduates yesterday to use their imaginations to create a better world. In an earnest, personal speech, the British author reminded students that their talents and opportunities carry "unique status and unique responsibilities," and challenged them to use their gifts for the greater good.

"That is your privilege and your burden," she said. "If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice, if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless, if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better." "We do not need magic to change the world," she continued. "We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: We have the power to imagine better."

Recalling her work in her 20s at Amnesty International, where she heard the experiences of political prisoners under totalitarian regimes, the 42-year-old Rowling extolled the transformative "power of human empathy" to forge collective action. "Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation," she said. "In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared." "Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters," she added.

Rowling, who was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree, also stressed what she called the "benefits of failure," recalling a dark period in her late 20s, that while painful was also liberating. "I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea," she said. "And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

Rowling began her remarks in light-hearted fashion, quipping that the invitation to speak was not only a great honor, but had helped her lose weight through the anxiety of preparation. "A win-win situation!" she said. "Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners, and fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention."

Rowling was introduced by Harvard president Drew Faust, who welcomed "witches, wizards, and muggles of all ages" and, with a chuckle, said she recognized she was merely "the warm-up act." Some 7,000 students received diplomas yesterday morning in a ceremony marked by tradition and jubilant celebrations. Harvard Yard was thronged for the graduation, which featured a lengthy address in Latin and marshals dressed in coats and tails and black top hats.

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Photos courtesy of AP Photo/Lisa Poole and Boston Herald/Stuart Cahill

Original Source: Boston Globe

The entire text, video and audio of J.K. Rowling Harvard Commencement speech can be found online at The Leaky Cauldron.

John F. Kennedy Jr. discusses "George" with Barbara Walters in a rare interview.

"A simple truth, 'to make sure everyone, alive, makes it home' (as a soldier shouted out), has been debated by many on and on..." Following is excerpt from "He Fell", poem inspired by a true story. Poet: .D. LuCxeed (www.loves-footsteps.com) -
...
To snatch life out of the steel teeth of Death, he fell.
Have you, Heaven’s Grace, heard him?
Jason Dunham, a handsome heart above Hell,
- I want to make sure everyone, alive,
makes it home.

"Son, home is calling you, Jason Dunham."
"Young man, motherland needs you home."
To snatch life out of the steel teeth of Death, he fell,
down into the bosom of somber deserts.
Mourning mountains toll the bell.
...

*music by calpomatt