WASHINGTON (AP) - A massive exploding faraway star—the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen—has scientists wondering whether a similar celestial fireworks show may light up the sky much closer to Earth sometime soon. The discovery, announced Monday by NASA, drew oohs and aahs for months from the handful of astronomers who peered through telescopes to see the fuzzy remnants of the spectacular explosion after it was first spotted last fall.
Using a variety of Earth and space telescopes, astronomers found a giant exploding star that they figure has shined about five times brighter than any of the hundreds of supernovae ever seen before, said discovery team leader Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley. The discovery was first made last September by a graduate student in Texas.
"This one is way above anything else," Smith told The Associated Press. "It's really astonishing."
Smith said the star, SN2006gy, "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before." He called the star "freakily massive" at 150 times the mass of the sun.
Observations from the Chandra X-ray telescope helped show that it didn't become a black hole like other supernovae and skipped a stage of star death.
Unlike other exploding stars, which peak at brightness for a couple of weeks at most, this supernova, peaked for 70 days, according to NASA. And it has been shining at levels brighter than other supernovae for several months, Smith said.
And even at 240 million light years away, this star in a distant galaxy does suggest that a similar and relatively nearby star—one 44 quadrillion miles away—might blow in similar fashion any day now or 50,000 years from now, Smith said. It wouldn't threaten Earth, but it would be so bright that people could read by it at night, said University of California at Berkeley astronomer David Pooley. However, it would only be visible to people in the Southern Hemisphere, he said.
___ On the Net: http://www.nasa.gov

To the calculator for the heck of it.
It only took about 10 minutes and its VERY handy!

1) Manage, work hard, and save, save, save; and you might get lucky after a lifetime.
2) Borrow, and manage; and you might have a million dollars this year.
Me, I'd rather owe a million dollars than own a million dollars.
3) Have wealthy relatives. Be born rich.
If you have weathy relatives, it doesn't matter if you screw up.
The well will never run dry. Your spending will be controlled by their handouts.
If you have a million dollars, and you screw up
You risk money that took you forever to save (unless you got lucky somewhere).
If you lose it, you will probably commit suicide, in shame.
If you owe a million dollars, and you screw up
You don't risk any of your own money.
If you plan it right, you don't even risk a bad credit rating.
And if you funnel money off while you have it, you can run circles around hard working people saving $1,000 a year.
If you lose it, you'll walk away laughing, and you'll do it again.
We all should have learned a lesson from Enron, don't you think?
Of course, I'd hope noone would build their credit to borrow $1,000,000, just to go bankrupt.
I'd hope people would borrow $1,000,000 to create commerce.
The way I see it, the plantation owners and the slaves still exist.
The only difference now is that the slaves aren't centrally located on plantations, and they don't know that they are slaves.
Fear keeps modern slaves picking cotton, just like it did 200 years ago.
Instead of fearing being tarred and feathered, people today fear losing their car, house, and dignity (whatever thats worth).
The game is self perpetuating for the modern day plantation owners.
They offer credit to anyone. They buy and let others pay.
They've spread news about how to better your struggles when you can't pay your bills.
What they've done is, they've managed to keep people working. People must work.
People buy things they can't afford. It keeps them working.
It is a very good system.
People who don't work are shunned.
They are shown as the homeless, the impoverished. The welfare people.
I would think the majority of non-working US citizens are born rich.

I ordered asthma medication on March 1st, through the internet.
There was some problems with the shipping, and it looked like I'd gotten burned on the deal.
Last night, I told Becky that today, I'd just run up to CVS, get a prescription and pay what would work out to be $200 for a bottle of combivent.
This morning, UPS knocked at the door. They had my 6 months worth of asthma meds.
What are the odds of that?
I think its a major coincidence that I was drawing the line today for biting the bullet on meds,
and they just show up after 70 days.
BTW - I got 4 bottles for $100, and it works wonderfully!!!

COMMENTS:
What the $^*%$%#?
Isn't EVERYTHING a set of patterns and infrastructure for something?
I still don't know what Astoria does different (besides creating new buzz words)
I guess what they are really saying is Astoria makes it easier for web programmers to access data
I think one of the most annoying things about working with computer techs these days is
they just don't know how to talk to people.
This is how I sum up the above article (in my mind)
1-First I boil down all of the synonyms
   ASP=The old BASIC language with commands for the internet
   ADO=The old BASIC language with commands for accessing data
   XML=The old FILE structure with a different way of storing its DATA.
   JSON=The old FILE structure with a different way of storing its DATA.
   RDF=The old FILE structure with a different way of storing its DATA.
   REST=Another way to let the old basic talk to microsofts new commands.
   Microsoft's ADO.Net Entity Framework=ADO=The old Basic language.
   The old BASIC language = a computer language.
2-I take out all of the ridiculous statements
   Accessing Data Services in the Cloud
3-I reread everything that was said and I sum it up.
   Microsoft introduces Astoria.
   Astoria gives Basic easier ways to access data on the web.
4-And I understand.

What really gets me is these people get paid highly for talking crap, inventing new words, and embelleshing old stuff.
I don't care how you slice and dice it.
Computers still do three things and its simple:
-Find out what you want
-Get data if necessary
-Show the result.

(CBS) The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer "Scotty" on "Star Trek," and of Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper soared briefly into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket.
It was the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert.
Suzan Cooper and Wende Doohan fired the rocket carrying small amounts of their husbands' ashes at 8:56 a.m. local time. "Go baby, go baby," said Eric Knight of the commercial launch company, UP Aerospace Inc. of Farmington, Connecticut.
Since it was a suborbital flight, the rocket soon plummeted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range. The payload with the remains descended by parachute.
"We nailed it. We stuck the landing," said Knight.
UP Aerospace launched the first rocket from the desert site in September, but that Spaceloft XL rocket crashed into the desert after spiraling out of control about nine seconds after liftoff. Company officials blamed the failure on a faulty fin design.
Family members paid $495 to place a few grams of their relatives' ashes on the rocket. Celestis, a Houston company, contracted with UP to send the cremated remains into space.
Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis, said last month that a CD with more than 11,000 condolences and fan notes was placed on the rocket with Doohan's remains.
Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. The remains of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry were sent into space in 1997.
The launch from the fledgling spaceport — currently a 100-foot by 25-foot concrete slab in a patch of desert more than 50 miles north of Las Cruces — keeps the New Mexico project ahead of its nearest competitor, in West Texas.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is said to be developing the spaceport north of Van Horn, Texas. Bezos' Blue Origin is working to develop tourist space flights.
British billionaire Richard Branson also has announced plans to launch a space tourism company, which is expected to have its headquarters at the New Mexico spaceport.

Well, it sounds like a great stay, there at Dinneyland.. See, if you had flown me out there, I could have gotten you those passes, because I still have my Studville (California) Driver's License. So there... See what you've been missing, driving the F150. You can go a long way further with a tank of gas in a passenger car. Did the kids enjoy it? It was their first time, wasn't it? I plan on being in Heavensville (LA) the third weekend in October. Maybe I can get you those passes at that time.

I am attending the UCLA football game against North Damn-It (Notre Dame). It's on Saturday October 20. I will be attending the game with Dominic Lewis, one of the contractors I worked with at Northrop, who I also worked in the very early '90s. During the late '90s and early '00s, he worked at Microsoft, and is back there again. His family (wife and kids) are up there in the Seattle area.

Maybe we saw The Andromeda Strain a few too many times in our formative years, but we can't help shivering when we hear about microbiologists reanimating long-dormant lethal viruses.
And those biologists working to make human limbs grow back: Haven't we seen that film? Don't the guys in lab coats all die in the first reel? They may sound cinematic, but the incredible research projects on the following pages are not imaginary. They're real, funded ventures by respected scientists. They have perfectly rational goals. They also happen to creep us out. Continue reading below for six of the scariest ideas in science.
Check out Popular Science

Becoming Californians will only serve to make you even better. Californians, by nature, are highly superior to all other "species"...

What are you doing to "become" Californians? Getting California driver's licenses with a  Needles/Barstow address? Be sure you do whatever it takes to satisfy Disney's requirements. Their criteria, as I remember from many years ago, and I don't know if they've changed, was you needed a California DL or ID card (issued by the DMV) for very SPECIFIC zips codes, in LA, Orange, SD, Riverside and SB counties. And in regards to Riverside and SB, not all zip codes may be accepted by Disney. Enjoy your time at Dinneyland as Larry Lizard would call it. Sounds great about the guy wanting to make use of Be Quick's services, beginning next week. I feel bad about that whole WLC thing. I had hoped, being in the situation I was in, to find a career option that would hopefully improve my situation. 

That's Pasadena... Not Pasedena... Naughty... But, then again I spell every thing wrong too. Funny, that address on E Walnut is Jeffwee's old address before he arrived here in Florida. Right down to the apartment #. Look for the "stuff" hidden in the walls, inside the electrical outlets.

Donny
Cell : 702-743-4258
Monday at 10am, will meet Jake or Zack.
Will verify on Saturday.
Says $902. $40,000 cash out. Balance will be $236,000 (80%)
Sounds good to me!

Zap2it - Seems to be where most TV Guide providers get there information from.

Jimmy... I got me a new (used) car. The Mitsubishi was beginning to nickle and dime me. Plus a bunch of other reasons. Ended up getting a 2003 Honda Accord EX (The EX is the top version) V6. Leather interior, sun/moon roof. Load of other goodies. Got a great car for what I paid. Or, shall I say, will be paying. I almost had the Mitsubishi paid off. But I figure I can get the Honda paid off in less than 2 years. The car had 1 previous owner and was a recent return from an expired lease.

Mine is white, is a 4-dr and has a sun/moon roof. I'll take pictures and email them to you this weekend. Long live good, operating gas caps.

hair? Shouldn't there be hair on the palm?

No, not on the back of the hand. On the palm. As in too much time spent 3-5-ing,,,

$760 for all four brakes. That sounds terrible to me, but they sounded so bad.
The rotors looked terrible.
I told them Mr Brake replaced the front brakes 2 years ago, and they have a lifetime warrentee on them.
But I also told them, Mr Brake should probably be called Mr Break.
They said they'd toss in the front rotors. Which would have been $220 more.
Sonny's footing the bill, which is darned decent of him.
I'm going to spring for a new stereo in that truck.
The last one got stolen 2 weeks ago.

She's trying to save me from Hell.
While her actions are noble, they aren't realistic.
Thats because I don't believe in Hell.
She repulsed me from any of the monotheistic beliefs (either of the Abrahamic, Jewish, Christian, or Islamic persuasions) with her evangelistic proselytisms, forty years ago.
She believes she's a devout Christian. She will do what ever her pastor tells her to do.
I owe a lot to my sister.
She inspired me to read the Bible at a very young age, just to verify half the things she dribbled out.
I doubt she really, really, read any of it. She just quoted it, out of text too, which is pretty meaningless.
Personally, and this is just my beliefs,
I think the notion of Hell should be sold with children's books, right next to the stories of Santa and the Easter Bunny.
I'd hope most people on this planet don't believe there's a red devil, with bull horns, cloven hoofs, and a pointy tail. That's just disfunctional. Nothing with hoofs has hands. LOL. 
And whats with the pitch fork? Did  he work on a farm? LOL.
Is that the best tool he could find to pitch bad people into hell with? LOL.
I would have used a hay bailer, but they weren't invented yet.
The devil looks like a character in a poorly written DC comic book and his concept just doesn't make any sense.
If this creature were born on a farm, it would be veal cutlets the next day.
The whole concept is just plain ol' dumb!
And I am sorry fo the adult who says these things to other adults, with either love or hate in their eyes.
They are the ones who are lost.
If you want to find god, just look in the mirror.
Figure out exactly what it is you see.
Maybe you'll see that we are devices, built from smaller devices, built from even smaller devices.
The more you learn, the more you'll realize that you don't know much at all, and that you can't quote god.
You are one of god's best works of art, not the other way around.
I would hope that someday, all religions could rejoice in their simularities and not their differences
If one religion has 8 gods, and another has 1 god, and yet another has a messenger, a god and a spirit,
they should all rejoice in that, because they all believe in a high power of some kind.

---

I put this in here for my reference. The hand is an incredible device! And the body runs on carrots! lol... I get so excited when I see blueprints like this. I wish life was longer, so I could have the time to debug some of these wonders. I'd love to explore the routines and functions in DNA. How it works, how cells create cells that create this, it is all very awsome. We will figure it out someday.