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The Little Foot fossilized skeleton could date back 3.67 million years. ============================================================================================ Johannesburg, South Africa (CNN)South Africa's Cradle of Humankind, an expanse of farmland and rolling hills outside Johannesburg, has already unlocked some of the great mysteries of evolution. The unveiling of a near-complete fossil hominid skeleton dating back 3.67 million years will only solidify the importance of the region. "Little Foot" is the oldest fossil hominid skeleton ever found in Southern Africa, the lead scientist examining the discovery said on Wednesday. The fossil skeleton takes its name from the small foot bones discovered by scientist Ron Clarke in 1994...

Dating back to Genesis and to some of the most primordial of myths, man’s history is replete with cautionary tales created to impart wisdom to any misguided soul seeking to make a lesser god of himself or his species. Be it the fruit first plucked by Eve from the biblical Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or Icarus’ hubristic flight on waxen wings, or the fable of the gamine Pandora’s curiosity, the moral was clear: Not all knowledge was meant for the finite minds of us mortals, nor should we fly too close to the sun lest we perish....

Nuclear power would allow missions to orbit - not merely fly by The US space agency (Nasa) is progressing with ambitious plans to explore the Solar System using nuclear power. Their hope, eventually, is to use electricity generated by nuclear power to propel a space probe and power its instruments on a voyage to the icy moons of Jupiter, satellites that just possibly might harbour life beneath their ice. Before then, nuclear technology could be proved with a less ambitious mission, perhaps a nuclear-powered probe to the Moon. As long ago as 1907, just two years after Einstein discovered his...

The US space agency (Nasa) is progressing with ambitious plans to explore the Solar System using nuclear power. Their hope, eventually, is to use electricity generated by nuclear power to propel a space probe and power its instruments on a voyage to the icy moons of Jupiter, satellites that just possibly might harbour life beneath their ice. Before then, nuclear technology could be proved with a less ambitious mission, perhaps a nuclear-powered probe to the Moon.

Hoping to pave the way for the human exploration of Mars within the next decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is expected to announce that developing a nuclear-powered rocket is its top research priority. The space agency is expected to request "significant resources and funding" to design a nuclear-powered propulsion system to triple the speed of current space travel, theoretically making it possible for humans to reach Mars in a two-month voyage. Excerpt; rest of article here: Agency expected to seek funding to develop way to travel 3 times

Explanation: In Greek myth Prometheus was a Titan, known for bringing fire from Mount Olympus. But in modern times the name is given to is a small moon of Saturn, orbiting just inside Saturn's F ring. In a complex interaction, the tiny potato-shaped moon interacts with the icy ring particles creating structures along the F ring still not fully understood. One of the highest resolution views of Prometheus, this image of its pocked surface posing with the thin F ring in the background was taken during the Cassini spacecraft's close approach on December 6, 2015. Prometheus is about 86 kilometers...

Years ago I spotted someone walking out of a store who looked just like a Metalunan from "This Island Earth" of which the best known one was Exeter. He had the same high bulging forehead with white hair and thick bushy white eyebrows. I really wanted to yell out, "Hey, how ya' doin', Exeter?" but I decided to spare him the embarrassment. Okay, so what I want to know is this: Is there anybody who looks like one of the Engineers from the movie "Prometheus?" They would have to have shaved heads and really pale skin. Out of over...

Did aliens create the human race? If so, does that negate the existence of God? Or, did God create the aliens? Despite the advancement of science and technology, Marshall-Green believes that humans will always have faith -- even if it’s one day proven that aliens were our creators, not God. “I absolutely think that religion will always be a part of humanity, because it was one of the first inventions of man,” he said.

Although Ridley Scott’s 3D visual feast is no classic, the oozing alien tentacles hit all the right sci-fi horror notes. Be careful what you wish for, especially if it involves figuring out who invented humankind. That's the warning at the heart of Prometheus, a visual feast of a 3D sci-fi movie that has trouble combining its high-minded notions about the origins of the species and its Alien -based obligation to deliver oozy gross-out moments. Ridley Scott's third venture into science-fiction,

Borrowing from a myriad of myths, Obama has ridden the myth phenomenon into the White House. There is an underlying problem with myths, they are most often based on falsehoods, exaggerations, and innuendos. Can a presidency based on myths survive four years? Perhaps we can draw a conclusion if we examine his personal myths with perspicuity. The Ubermenschen Myth, Obama’s myth designers borrowed heavily from Nietzsche’s concept of Ubermenschen symbolism. In the novel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, written in 1833, by Friedrich Nietzshce, features Zarathustra the protagonist, who offers his gift to mankind, the idea of Ubermenschen. A literal translation of...

Prometheus caused blind hopes to live in the hearts of men. ~ Aeschylus' "Prometheus" (fifth century B.C.) Prometheus having his liver eaten out by an eagle. Painting by Jacob Jordaens, c. 1640. The ancient Greek myth of Prometheus is the tragic and enduring narrative of a heroic figure who many publicly despised but secretly venerated, because he did feats of strength that others had neither the vision, intellect nor the heart to achieve. Prometheus, renown for his clever intelligence, became a champion of humanity when he stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals. For this crime Prometheus was...

This is an excerpt of a very lengthy explanation of what a nuclear SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) fully reusable rocket would look like. The full article can be found at the link above. In this section I describe a huge nuclear powered rocket launcher. I will repeat and expand upon many of the points I made above, because I don't want to throw cryptic acronyms around. I want people to understand just how powerful we can make this rocket if we decide to do it. The most important difference between our new booster and the Saturn V is...

November 3, 2005 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose On Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 10:00 a.m., the Committee on Science will hold a hearing to review the status of plans and programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will provide a comprehensive update on all facets of NASA's plans and programs. When Administrator Griffin last testified before the Committee four months ago, on June 28th, he described several reviews he had recently initiated, including: - the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) to define NASA's plans for returning to...

NISKAYUNA -- The plan to send a manned space mission to Mars apparently doomed research on nuclear propulsion being carried out at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. Advertisement KAPL employees were told late last week that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was ending the $65 million program to develop a nuclear-electric propulsion system as it reorders its priorities. The Prometheus project, as it is called, will undergo a "substantial reduction," KAPL officials said this week, in part so money can be spent on developing the Crew Exploration Vehicle that will be used to send humans back to the Moon and...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has pulled the plug on a $65 million nuclear propulsion research program at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, leaving 150 employees in limbo. "NASA and Naval Reactors have mutually agreed to terminate their partnership to work on Prometheus," as the program was called, a Knolls spokeswoman said Friday afternoon. "NASA has been changing its priorities. I don't have many details on this," she added. Lockheed Martin Corp. operates Knolls under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. Knolls employs 2,700 people, including 1,500 engineers, at its laboratory in Niskayuna and at another site in West...

A 46-year-old Kane County resident allegedly set his own home on fire in order to get two visitors to leave, police said. Dean Craig was charged with felony arson after allegedly splashing rubbing alcohol on the floor of the two-story home in Aurora Township and using a lighter to ignite the fire around 1 a.m. Sunday, the Kane County Sheriff's office said. When authorities arrived at Craig's home, which is owned by his mother, it was engulfed in flames, police said. Craig and his two guests were not injured. Craig allegedly had asked two visitors to leave, but when they...

WASHINGTON -- NASA sent Congress a revised spending plan for 2005 that would significantly cut the Project Prometheus nuclear power and propulsion program, cancel a host of international space station-based biological and physical research activities, and postpone some space science missions, including two advanced space telescopes and a Mars science lander slated to launch in 2009. The cuts were necessary, according to NASA, to pay the remaining $287 million tab for preparing the space shuttle for its return to flight, to make a substantial down payment on a potential Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, to accommodate $400 million worth of...

NASA’s Prometheus program to employ nuclear reactors in space is a work in progress – viewed as a key building block of the space agency’s vision for space exploration.

May 27, 2004 | Filmmaker Michael Moore filmed an interview with American Nicholas Berg in the course of producing his documentary film "Fahrenheit 9/11" before Berg left for Iraq, where he was taken hostage and killed, Moore confirmed to Salon in a statement Thursday. The 20 minutes of footage does not appear in the final version of "Fahrenheit 911," according to the statement. Word of the footage reached Salon through a source unaffiliated with Moore or his film "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is reported to feature stark images of U.S. civilians and soldiers grappling with conditions in war-torn Iraq, as well...

Summary - (Sep 21, 2004) NASA has chosen Northrop Grumman Space Technology to build its upcoming Prometheus Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft, and awarded them a $400 million contract to cover costs up to 2008. JIMO will use a nuclear-powered ion engine to go into orbit around each of Jupiter's icy moons: Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. Once in orbit, the spacecraft would be able to examine each of the moons in great detail with a suite of instruments to try and understand their composition, history, and if there could be conditions for life. Full Story - NASA's Jet Propulsion...