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SIR Richard Branson is taking a giant leap for mankind by drawing up plans to build the worlds first space hotels, his space flight company Virgin Galactic has told The Business. Alex Tai, its operations director, who will pilot Virgins first commercial space flight in 2008, has held talks with US hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow about the project, Virgin Galactics president Will Whitehorn confirmed. Bigelow Aerospace is developing inflatable pods it believes could receive the first space travellers by the end of the decade. Branson, Virgin Galactics chairman, revealed the space hotel discussions in Dubai last week. Branson said: We...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Richard Branson's Virgin Group is on track to become the world's first commercial spaceline, with suborbital flights for space tourists due to start in 2008, the British billionaire said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters in Dubai, where his Virgin Atlantic (VA.UL: Quote, Profile, Research) airline began flights from London this week, Branson said other companies offering space travel had not matched the progress made by the Virgin Galactic venture. "A number of companies around the world are offering space travel but they haven't tested and built any space ships. They certainly haven't had test flights...

Celia Medina said that the first time she went to the base of the Interstate Highway 74 bridge across the Rock River, she saw lots of things--cars and trucks rumbling along, streetlights casting a glow over the water, night falling over the city of Moline in western Illinois--but not the vision she had hoped to see. That visit was about 8 p.m. on March 19. Relatives had told her if she looked hard enough at one of the bridge supports poking out of the river, the shadows cast by streetlights above would reveal the outline of a veiled Virgin Mary,...

ABC News Sexless and Proud Asexuals Say They're Misunderstood in a Sex-Obsessed World March 23, 2006 — - David Jay has had plenty of girlfriends. But despite the 23-year-old Californian's success in dating, he's a virgin -- and he plans to stay that way. He's not joining the priesthood or taking any vow of celibacy; he said he simply has no interest in having sex -- ever. "I'm sure that life is really, really great when it's all about sex. But life is also really, really great when it's not about sex," he told "20/20's" JuJu Chang. Keith Walker of...

"Slippage." That was by far my favorite word in the letter Andover's West Middle School Principal Denise Holmes e-mailed to parents regarding their children's attire, or lack thereof, at school. Her note was prompted by the outfits a group of girls was wearing on Valentine's Day, with skirts so short that ... well, let Ms. Holmes explain. "This one girl had the cutest pink underwear on," she said. "I shouldn't have known that." Well, no. But she's not the problem. The problem is that all the boys knew it as well. So Holmes sent out a gentle reminder. Very gentle....

According to the tracking page at the Global Flyer webpage (link above), Steve Fossett has made it across the Atlantic, and is currently over southwestern Ireland. He will be landing at Kent International Airport in England in 2-3 hours.

SANTA FE— Our fleet is not as big as his, but that didn't stop New Mexico from using its new jet to fly billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson here last week for his space tourism pitch. Branson, known for brash antics such as inscribing aircraft with a "Mine is bigger than yours" slogan, owns several of his own airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Express and Virgin Blue. But a New Mexico economic development spokeswoman, Katie Roberts, said there will be no taxpayer cost for flying Branson here on the state's $5.5 million Cessna Citation Bravo. Branson came to New Mexico...

For her 17th wedding anniversary, Jeanette Yarborough wanted to do something special for her husband. In addition to planning a hotel getaway for the weekend, Ms. Yarborough paid a surgeon $5,000 to reattach her hymen, making her appear to be a virgin again. "It's the ultimate gift for the man who has everything," says Ms. Yarborough, 40 years old, a medical assistant from San Antonio. Hymenoplasty, a controversial medical procedure known mostly for its prevalence in the Middle East and Latin America, is becoming popular in the U.S.

New Mexico's plan to build a $225 million spaceport calls for the state Legislature to contribute $100 million in new money over the next three years — the "cornerstone" of an effort that could open up outer space to thousands of paying customers over the next decade, Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday. The balance would come from state funding already approved, as well as federal and local funds, said Rick Homans, New Mexico's economic development secretary. New Mexico's political leaders said the investment would bring a return in the form of thousands of new jobs as well as heightened prestige.

An agreement with British airline tycoon Richard Branson will put New Mexico on the map as the launch pad for personal spaceflight worldwide, the state's economic development secretary says. State officials plan to announce a major agreement next week with Branson, but Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans declined to discuss the details with the Albuquerque Journal on Tuesday. Branson is to join New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Dec. 14 to announce the agreement with Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, Homans told the Journal.

Virgin Airlines is to offer frequent-flyer "Space Miles" that passengers can put towards flights in space with the company's soon to be launched Virgin Galactic. Richard Branson says customers who collect two million points will be entitled to be among the first commercial astronauts when his space plan takes off in two years. "There are already 30 people in the world who have collected enough air miles to fly into space," Mr Branson said. "We do think there will be a lot of Virgin Atlantic people who will want to travel into space." Mr Branson in July formed a company...

Movie night turned into fright night for an Ottawa man and his 12-year-old daughter on Sunday when when they were handed a roll of Christmas wrapping paper showing two angels locked in a naughty embrace. As Alan Dean, his girlfriend, Andrea Cochrane, and Dean's daughter, Cailin McDowell, left the 5:30 showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at the Coliseum, an employee handed them a roll of promotional Christmas wrapping paper. But it wasn't until Dean and Cochrane returned home after dropping Cailin off at her mother's house that they realized the paper was more naughty than nice....

Indian millionaire Vijaypat Singhania today broke the world record for the highest flight in a hot air balloon, reaching the fringes of space, his son claimed. Singhania, 67, hit 21,000 metres a little more than two hours after taking off in his 40-tonne balloon, and has started his descent, his son Gautam said. "We have the world record at 69,000 feet" (21,000 metres), said Gautam Singhania. "We're bringing him down now." The previous world record was 19,811 metres, set by Sweden's Per Lindstrand in Plano, Texas, in June 1988. Singhania lifted off from downtown Bombay at 6.45am (1215 AEDT) enclosed...

Taddeo CrivelliItalian, Ferrara, about 1469 SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA VIRGIN, MARTYR C. 310 A.D. Feast: November 25 From the tenth century onwards veneration for St. Catherine of Alexandria[1] has been widespread in the Church of the East, and from the time of the Crusades this saint has been popular in the West, where many churches have been dedicated to her and her feast day kept with great solemnity, sometimes as a holy-day of obligation. She is listed as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of mankind among the saints in Heaven; she is the patroness of young women, philosophers,...

November 22, 2005Memorial of Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr Psalm: Tuesday 50 Reading IDn 2:31-45 Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar:“In your vision, O king, you saw a statue,very large and exceedingly bright,terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.The head of the statue was pure gold,its chest and arms were silver,its belly and thighs bronze, the legs iron,its feet partly iron and partly tile.While you looked at the statue,a stone which was hewn from a mountainwithout a hand being put to it,struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once,fine...

Virgin Galactic still has major design decisions to make for the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital craft, which is planned to enter service in 2008 carrying seven tourists and two pilots. The Virgin Group company says SS2 will have wing spoilers and a redesigned hybrid rocket engine, but solutions to subsonic wing flutter and g loading are still being sought. The UK company wants to find a way of reducing the 5g that the Scaled Composites-designed SS2 will experience during re-entry and is working with NASA and Qinetiq to achieve that. The addition of wing spoilers will improve handling at lower speeds,...

A small piece of the 'American Paradise' can be found in Afghanistan, as Virgin Island reservists bring their distinctive island music to their deployment. FORWARD OPERATING BASE ANED, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2005 — Land-locked Afghanistan, with its dry, mountainous, dusty climate, in no way resembles a tropical island, yet Reggae and Calypso music and that certain accent associated with small islands in the Caribbean can be heard drifting from one room in the barracks on Forward Operating Base Aned, Afghanistan. That room is the temporary home away from home for eight members of the 652nd Engineering Detachment, a reserve unit...

THINK you are upset about high gas prices? Maverick British entrepreneur Richard Branson is so furious he wants to build his own oil refinery. Like the rest of the airline industry, Mr Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways has been stung by higher jet fuel prices and was forced to raise fuel surcharges for the second time in four months. Hurricane Katrina sent oil prices soaring to $US70 a barrel because it shut several US Gulf Coast refineries, which turn crude oil into products like diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. "If we don't start now to get more refineries built then fuel...

A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of MaryMost Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of...

August 9, 2005Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Tuesday 35 Reading IDt 31:1-8 When Moses had finished speaking to all Israel, he said to them,"I am now one hundred and twenty years oldand am no longer able to move about freely;besides, the LORD has told me that I shall not cross this Jordan.It is the LORD, your God, who will cross before you;he will destroy these nations before you,that you may supplant them.It is Joshua who will cross before you, as the Lord promised.The LORD will deal with them just as he dealt with Sihon and Og,the...