Free Republic

July 14, 2006 Memorial of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin Psalm: Friday 29 Reading 1Hos 14:2-10 Thus says the LORD:Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;you have collapsed through your guilt.Take with you words,and return to the LORD;Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity,and receive what is good, that we may renderas offerings the bullocks from our stalls.Assyria will not save us,nor shall we have horses to mount;We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’to the work of our hands;for in you the orphan finds compassion.”I will heal their defection, says the LORD,I will love them freely;for my wrath is turned away...

April 29, 2006 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor of the Church Psalm: Saturday 18 Reading 1Acts 6:1-7 As the number of disciples continued to grow,the Hellenists complained against the Hebrewsbecause their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,“It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,filled with the Spirit and wisdom,whom we shall appoint to this task,whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayerand to the ministry of the word.”The proposal...

IT USED to be the stuff of science fiction, but now tourist trips to space are to be launched from Scotland, under new plans being considered by Sir Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galatic. Last month the company directors announced that they would launch their first commercial flight into space in 2008 from New Mexico and have already attracted 167 bookings at a cost of £115,000 per person. A number of celebrities including Sigourney Weaver, star of the Alien films, Paris Hilton, the socialite, and Victoria Principal, the former star of Dallas, the TV soap opera, have bought tickets for the...

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...