Free Republic

The most expensive train station in the U.S. is taking shape at the site of the former World Trade Center, a majestic marble-and-steel commuter hub that was seen by project boosters as a landmark to American hope and resilience. Instead, the terminal connecting New Jersey with downtown Manhattan has turned into a public-works embarrassment. Overtaking the project's emotional resonance is a practical question: How could such a high-profile project fall eight years behind schedule and at least $2 billion over budget?

A 3D printer bound for the International Space Station in 2014 has passed a series of key microgravity flight tests, the device's builders say. Three prototype versions of space manufacturing startup Made in Space's 3D printer showed their stuff during four airplane flights that achieved brief periods of microgravity via parabolic maneuvers, company officials announced today (June 19). "Today, we demonstrated that our 3D printers can print in microgravity," Made in Space strategic officer Mike Chen said in a statement. "Next year, we will demonstrate that they can print on the International Space Station." 3D printers use a technique called...

Potential Dark Matter Discovery a Win for Space Station Science April 04, 2013; 7:56 AM If nature is kind, the first detection of dark matter might be credited to the International Space Station soon. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment hangs on the side of the International Space Station, July 12, 2011. CREDIT: NASAToday (April 3), researchers announced the first science results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion cosmic-ray particle detector mounted on the exterior of the football-field-size International Space Station. The instrument has observed a striking pattern of antimatter particles called positrons that may turn out to...

The information in this section comes largely from The Urban Character of Christian Worship, by Rev. John Baldovin, S.J. Footnotes refer to the pages in his text where further information can be found.Station Churches 2012 Each year, the North American College follows the ancient tradition of the Roman stational liturgy. All are invited to join us for the celebration of Mass each day. Using the side bar on the left, you will find the schedule and listing of the churches. Each page contains a short description and history of each church. At the bottom of each page, you will find...

Russia considering unmanned space stationRussia's space agency Roskosmos is considering ending a permanent human presence in space, an agency official said on Wednesday following last week's crash of a supply ship delivering precious cargo to the ISS. 7:20PM BST 31 Aug 2011 "Perhaps in the future, we will not need a constant manned presence in the lower Earth orbit," Roskosmos deputy director Vitaly Davydov told journalists in Moscow. "We don't exclude the possibility of returning to the concept of DOS (long-term orbital) stations that we had before stations with constant human presence," he said. **SNIP** Davydov's remarks came days after...

Now that America has no way to put people into space, we have to rely on the Ruskies. They might have been Communists for almost 80 years but they sure understand market economies (specifically, supply and demand) because the pre-negotiated deal of $51 million per U.S. astronaut expires at the end of 2013. The General Director of Russian Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, said in 2010: We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this. But after that? Excuse me but the prices should be absolutely different then! The Comrade was right… NASA just inked a...

The coolest thing ever! That was amazing. Waiting for the fireworks but to see the space station go by was even cooler! Anyone else see it too?

A GOOGLE geek has found what he believes is a 'space station' on Mars.He found the spec on the Red Planet by accident but has provided fellow explorers with the coordinates of the 'object' so they can discover it for themselves. American armchair astronaut David Martines posted a clip of his trip to the surface of the planet on YouTube. He used the search giant's maps of the astral body and his video has already clocked up a staggering 58,000 views. David explains how he found the 'space station' or possibly 'power station' quite by accident at coordinates 71 49'19.73"N...

New York - Gas prices are on the rise nationwide, but one filling station in Florida has earned the dubious distinction of having the highest prices in the country. Suncoast Energys, located near the Orlando International Airport, was charging $5.69 a gallon for regular gasoline on Friday. That's the highest of any gas retailer in the nation, according to price tracker gasbuddy.com. By contrast, the average price in the city of Orlando is $3.78 a gallon, a few pennies below the state and national averages. Patrick DeHann,

As a thank-you to its most famous customer, Amtrak is renaming the train station in Wilmington, Del., after stimulus “sheriff” Vice President Joseph R. Biden - after the project received $20 million in stimulus money and came in $5.7 million over the initial announced budget. Spokesmen for Mr. Biden, who said he personally fought for stimulus money for Amtrak, didn’t respond to messages Wednesday or Thursday.

An unfortunate chyron writer for WLKY in Louisville, Kentucky, either needs to watch their typos or their hatred of East Coast "elites" after letting this graphic get on the air during last night's AFC Championship wrap up. We're pretty sure the football Jets do not hail from the town of "Jew York." Twitter user @elezar snapped this photo of his television and gave everyone on the internet a good laugh.

Is another Andrew Breitbart Web site production about to be unmasked as bogus? Breitbart's Big Journalism site is making an incendiary accusation: That reporters at the Anchorage CBS affiliate KTVA were caught conspiring to damage Tea Party Senate candidate Joe Miller. Big Journalism posted a snippet of audio allegedly showing this: It features KTVA reporters talking among themselves while -- unbeknownst to them -- they were accidentally being recorded on the voicemail of Miller's campaign manager. But it's unclear from the recording precisely what, if anything, was being plotted.

"Following days of increased activity, the Russian numbers station UVB-76 has sent out a new voice transmission. The transmission, sent out on August 23, 2010 at 9:35AM PST, recited the following in Russian: 'UVB-76, UVB-76 — 93 882 naimina 74 14 35 74 — 9 3 8 8 2 nikolai, anna, ivan, michail, ivan, nikolai, anna, 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 4' The station, believed to be a part of the former Soviet Union's dead man's switch system, has been continually broadcasting for over twenty years, and its purpose has never been fully explained."

Spain has opened the world's largest solar power station, meaning that it overtakes the US as the biggest solar generator in the world. The nation's total solar power production is now equivalent to the output of a nuclear power station. Spain is a world leader in renewable energies and has long been a producer of hydro-electricity (only China and the US have built more dams). It also has a highly developed wind power sector which, like solar power, has received generous government subsidies. The new La Florida solar plant takes Spain's solar output to 432MW, which compares with the US...

TORRANCE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Honda today began operation of a next generation solar hydrogen station prototype at the Los Angeles Center of Honda R&D Americas, Inc., intended for ultimate use as a home refueling appliance capable of an overnight refill of fuel cell electric vehicles. Designed as a single, integrated unit to fit in the user's garage, Honda's next generation Solar Hydrogen Station reduces the size of the system, while producing enough hydrogen (0.5kg) via an 8-hour overnight fill for daily commuting (10,000 miles per year) for a fuel cell electric vehicle. The previous solar hydrogen station system required both an electrolyzer...

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE — Two storms appeared to be on course Friday to hit Southern California next week with potentially heavy rainfall that could unleash floods of mud and debris-laden water from wildfire burn areas into adjacent communities. The National Weather Service said the exact tracks of the storms and rainfall amounts were still uncertain, but it was likely that rain would fall over the region on Monday and possibly through the week until Friday. There was a possibility showers could arrive as early as Sunday night, the NWS said. A major area of concern is the string of Los...

Earlier this week, Huntington Mayor Steve Updike held a press conference relaying information of coming citywide layoffs. The only position, at that date, to be announced in the layoff was the Mayor's secretary. He went on to say that six more layoffs were expected this week. Yesterday it was announce that......

The monster Station Fire burning north of Los Angeles was human-caused, a U.S. Forest Service official said Wednesday. Meanwhile, fire crews prepared for potential setbacks because of returning drier conditions, MSNBC.com reported. Investigators don't know specifically how the Station Fire was started but have enough information to determine it was caused by a person, the Forest Service's deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said during a news conference. Investigators were determining whether the fire was accidental or arson and identified the point of origin as mile marker 29 on Angeles Crest Highway. Firefighters caught a weather break Tuesday when moister, cooler...

NURISTAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Aug. 10, 2009 – NATO’s International Security Assistance Force is giving voice to residents of this remote area through a radio station run by one of their own. Shaib Dad Hamdard works as a radio disc jockey in his native Nuristan province, Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2009. The station, funded by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, offers the people of the remote mountain area a variety of news and entertainment programs. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matthew C. Moeller  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. When Shaib Dad Hamdard was growing up here near the Pakistan border, he...