Big Star Wars Expansions for Disneyland and Disney World

Disney’s Bob Iger announced that the company will introduce “Star Wars”-themed lands in the company’s Disneyland park in Anaheim, Calif., and Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., during Disney’s D23 Expo on Saturday afternoon. The Star Wars expansion will be 14 acres. California Adventure area is 67 acres. Star Wars …

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Evidence of small scale farming 23000 years ago well before when full scale farming was “invented” some 12000 years ago

Until now, researchers believed farming was “invented” some 12,000 years ago in the Cradle of Civilization — Iraq, the Levant, parts of Turkey and Iran — an area that was home to some of the earliest known human civilizations. A new discovery by an international collaboration of researchers from Tel Aviv University, Harvard University, Bar-Ilan …

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Latest on CRISPR and genomics starting with compression of full genome data by over 1 million times and thousands of fold progress on CRISPR genome changes

It is now possible to record a human genome (differences relative to a reference is only 2 megabytes. This is instead of 9 terabytes for a human genome with image data. Genomes for the entire human population is 2 petabytes. Getting to one off target in one in 100 trillion (10^14) to one in 10 …

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Mach 3 naval guns are double the speed of standard shells and brings some benefits expected from hypersonic railguns

A guided HVP (Hyper Velocity Projectile.) round from a standard Mk 45 deck gun could bring a significant margin of the railguns promised capabilities to the fleet sooner, USNI News understands. The HVPs from a traditional deck gun will be slower than one launched from a railgun — a little over Mach 3 versus Mach …

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DARPA aims for 100 times better space telescopes and Spy satellites

State-of-the-art imagery of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO), up to 2,000 km (1,200 miles) high, can achieve resolution of 1 pixel for every 10 cm today, providing relatively crisp details. But image resolution for objects in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), a favorite parking place for space assets roughly 36,000 km (22,000 miles) high, drops …

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Spacex Falcon 9 certified for medium risk NASA launches and another Russian Launch Failure

SpaceX has been certified by NASA’s for Falcon 9 rockets to carryout Category 2 space missions. These are ”medium risk’ launches such as satellites and less expensive space probes. The Atlas 5, Delta 2 and Pegasus XL rockets operate under this certification. It took three years for SpaceX to have its Falcon 9 to complete …

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Aperture: A Precise Extremely large Reflective Telescope Using Re-configurable Elements

Two NASA NIAC projects for improving space telescopes. 1. Aperture: A Precise Extremely large Reflective Telescope Using Re-configurable Elements Northwestern University, teamed with the University of Illinois (UIUC), proposes to develop a game changing technology for large deployable optical quality mirrors. The innovation combines the concept of a flying magnetic write head with a magnetic …

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China can sustain 5-7% GDP growth with structural reform

After three decades of extraordinary economic development, China is shifting to a slower and more sustainable growth path. Further reforms are now needed to ensure that future growth is resilient, inclusive and green, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Survey of China. The OECD forecasts that China’s GDP will grow by 7% this year and …

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Silicon Nanofibers could boost lithium battery energy density by ten times

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery. This paper-like material is composed of sponge-like silicon nanofibers …

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Carnival of Space 393

The Carnival of Space 393 is up at Universe Today Meet Three People Who Intend to Die on Mars at Universe Today More than 200,000 people have applied to the Mars One Project, and 663 candidates have been put on the shortlist. Eventually just 4 people will be packed into a spacecraft and blasted off …

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