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It's not every night you have a mugging on the mansion-lined streets of Pacific Heights -- but it's really unusual when the victim is a 10-foot-tall robot named Goliath, and the suspects are traced to the home of one of San Francisco's biggest names. Police are still investigating the incident and aren't saying much. But the neighborhood knows all about it, and from the looks of things, everyone involved is hoping it will all quietly go away. Here's what we know so far. About two years ago, Robert Mailer Anderson, author of the book "Boonville," installed a giant, metal robot...

Spy chief: Terrorists will try to hit Scandinavia 'Security risk' Scandinavia’s reputation for liberalism and equality also attracts Muslim radicals who may view the Nordics as a safe, soft option, he said, adding that this reputation must change.

CONTACT: Elana Oberlander, Office of the Spokesman, Bar-Ilan University Has the Biblical Goliath Been Found? Bar-Ilan University Archaeologists Unearth Earliest Philistine Inscription in Which Names Similar to Goliath Appear Ramat Gan - A very small ceramic sherd unearthed by Bar-Ilan University archaeologists digging at Tell es-Safi, the biblical city "Gath of the Philistines", may hold a very large clue into the history of the well-known biblical figure Goliath. The sherd, which contains the earliest known Philistine inscription ever to be discovered, mentions two names that are remarkably similar to the name "Goliath". Tell es-Safi/Gath is located in the southern coastal...

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A 7 1/2-year-old monster buck named Goliath, allegedly stolen in 1999 and then returned to the ranch where he was raised, has died. The massive deer died Dec. 6; tests will determine the cause. The life span of a deer is 10 to 15 years. "It could have been due to a lot of the stress that he endured from being away from here," said Diane Miller, who raised the buck with her husband at their Wild Bunch Ranch, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. "It's just like losing a family member." Goliath, believed to be the...

The name Goliath, like Achish, is not Semitic, but rather Anatolian (McCarter 1980, 291, Mitchell 1967, 415; Wainwright 1959, 79). Not all agree though; the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (2:524) proposes that Goliath may have been a remnant of one of the aboriginal groups of giants of Palestine who now were in the employ of the Philistines. [1. Naveh (1985, 9, 13 n. 14) states that Ikausu, the name of the king of Ekron in the seventh century b.c., is a non-Semitic name that can be associated with that of the Achish of Gath in David's time. The name in...

Next week, NASA will open a new state-of-the-art laboratory for cutting-edge research into advanced propulsion systems - technologies that one day could power space vehicles to Mars, to Jupiter or to destinations never before imagined

Recent news brings us the story of “space pioneers” launching privately funded craft into the heavens. A special prize is offered to the first private aerospace corporation who can successfully take a pilot and a “space tourist” into orbit.

Mike Melvill's exo-atmospheric excursion aboard a privately developed rocket already may have accomplished the primary goal of a new-age space race by showing that governments are not the only entities that can transport people off the planet.

The Night We Return to the Moon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commentary by Mark R. Whittington July 19, 2004 It is a summer evening in the year 2016 and something is about to happen that has not occurred in forty four years. Human beings are about to walk on the Moon. A person who was in kindergarten when this last took place would now be fifty years old. Most people now alive have never seen someone exploring another world. The world has changed unimaginably in those forty four years. Indeed, partly because of the effort that has led to this moment in history,...

While the details of Project Constellation have yet to be decided and NASA’s contractors are waiting for the Level 2 requirements for the Crew Exploration Vehicle to be published, one technology seems certain to be included—inflatables, or, as Robert Bigelow calls them, “expandables.”

Since the January 14th announcement of what has since become known as the Vision for Space Exploration, one of the major debates about its implementation has focused on launch capability. While some have argued that the glut of launch vehicles on the market today, along with vehicles in the planning stages, is sufficient to handle the demands of the vision, others have concluded that a new, larger vehicle is required to loft heavy payloads to the Moon and beyond. (See “The myth of heavy lift”, The Space Review, May 17, 2004, and “The cost of medium lift”, The Space Review,...

Americans embrace space exploration! Bush plan looks like a winner to me with numbers like this! CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA and the U.S. space program enjoy broad support and interest from the American public, according to the results of a new Gallup survey coordinated by the Space Foundation and sponsored by the Coalition for Space Exploration. More than two-thirds (68%) of the American public say they support a new plan for space exploration that would include a stepping-stone approach to return the space shuttle to flight, complete assembly of the space station, build a replacement for...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 19 (UPI) -- Thirty-five years after the first humans set foot on the moon, the United States is planning for return flights to the lunar surface. NASA's next group of moonwalkers, however, might not find the place quite as desolate as their Apollo brethren did.

The U.S. space propulsion industry, a technology linchpin for America's return to the Moon, is looking to retool and reorganize around a new but controversial "national propulsion company" concept that could help revitalize the industry

The U.S. goal of a human mission to Mars faces many hurdles, among them a shortage of space radiobiologists. It's a shortage NASA addressed in part with its first space radiation summer school, held last month at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Publicly thanking Paul G. Allen, who admitted to investing more than $20 million in the project, Rutan appeared to physically choke up when he said, "We were able to develop a complete space program from scratch for the price of one of those government paper studies." ...Mojave Airport Manager Stu Witt... said. "Nobody's ever done anything like this before," Pearson said. "That's part of what's unique about America--nowhere else in the world. It's a great day for the country." Non-military government involvement was limited. In fact, according to Rutan, the first contact between NASA and the program participants came...

EDWARDS, CALIFORNIA -- Engineers here are on the fast-track, readying the next flight of NASA’s X-43A, a super-sleek, high-speed craft powered by a scramjet engine.

Bangalore, Jul 10 - The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), G. Madhavan Nair, said the third-generation geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV Mk III), scheduled to undertake its first flight in 2007-08, would equip India with a rocket capable of putting a man in space.

OMAHA , Neb. (Jul. 12, 2004) The Honorable Newt Gingrich, chief executive officer of The Gingrich Group and former speaker of the House, will be a featured speaker at Strategic Space 2004, which takes place 5-7 October at the Qwest Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena in Omaha. Gen Lance W. Lord, USAF, Commander, Air Force Space Command, Lt Gen Thomas B. Goslin, Jr., USAF, Deputy Commander, United States Strategic Command, and many other national security space luminaries have also been confirmed as speakers.

SpaceShipOne will be going for the gold on its next forays to the edge of space. Scaled Composites President Burt Rutan told Wired News last week the history-making private spacecraft, whose somewhat troubled first flight on June 21 was the first privately funded, civilian-crewed space flight, will attempt three flights within a two-week span to try to claim the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. He said they've fixed the actuator problem that caused an uncommanded 90-degree roll and sent the space plane 20 miles off course on its maiden flight. The X PRIZE requires only two flights, with a payload...