EchoStar rolls out portable media player
EchoStar Communications Corp., which operates the Dish Network satellite TV service, introduced a portable
media player Tuesday that displays television programs or movies, plays music and stores digital photographs.
The PocketDish comes in three sizes offering screens up to 7 inches and a maximum hard-drive capacity of 40 gigabytes. Retail prices range from $329 for the portable media player to $599 for the top-of-the-line media
recorder. The players have the capability to record video, music and data from televisions, computers, DVD
players and camcorders, said Mark Jackson, president of EchoStar Technologies Corp. In addition, the
PocketDish offers a quick transfer from certain Dish Network digital video recorders, downloading an hour of
programming in about five minutes, he said. EchoStar's stock dipped 3 cents to $29 in early trading on the
Nasdaq Stock Market. Based in Englewood, Colorado, EchoStar's Dish Network is the nation's second-largest
satellite TV provider with about 11.5 million customers.
Civilian Space Traveler "Phones Home" via Ham Radio
During his eight days in space, Greg Olsen, KC2ONX, the International Space Station's third civilian space
traveler, touched base via ham radio with students at three high schools, including his alma mater. He spoke
October 5 with Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey, October 6 with Ft Hamilton High School in
Brooklyn, New York, and October 7 with Ridgefield Park High School in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Olsen,
who lives in Princeton, was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Ridgefield Park High School. One Princeton
student wanted to know how much less time would pass on the ISS than on Earth due to relativity.
Space tourist and U.S.-Russian crew back on Earth
ARKALYK, Kazakhstan -- U.S. millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen (KC2ONX) and a two-man, Russian-
American crew returned from the international space station to Earth early Tuesday in a swift, bone-jarring
descent. The touchdown of the Russian Soyuz space capsule on the cold, wind-swept steppes of northern
Kazakhstan, where Russia's manned-space facilities are based, ended the third trip by a private citizen to
the orbiting laboratory. The descent from the station orbiting approximately 250 miles above the Earth took
about 3 ½ hours. Four search planes and 17 helicopters scrambled to meet the spacecraft, and
search-and-rescue crewmembers helped the men out of the capsule, sat them in chairs and draped
fur-lined sleeping bags over their shoulders to ward off the early dawn chill. Rescuers reported that the
crew's condition was "good," according to Russian Mission Control at Korolyov outside Moscow.
Olsen, 60, appeared unaffected by the gut-wrenching trip home. He grinned ebulliently, ate a green pear
and drank water with gusto as he chatted with ground personnel. "I feel great," he said in both English
and Russian. "I want to have a good steak, a red wine and, of course, a hot shower," he told reporters
after the crew was whisked by a helicopter to the nearby town of Kustanai from where they were flown
to an air base just outside Moscow. Phillips' wife Laura, watching the landing at Russian Mission Control,
said her husband was launched into space on his birthday and was returning on hers. "I guess it's the
best present a person could ask for," she said. Olsen, of Montgomery Township in Somerset County, N.J.,
is scheduled to spend Oct. 17 and 18 in New York City doing media interviews and making the rounds
on the morning news shows. He will return to the United States for good at the beginning of November,
but his return to New Jersey and other details of his post-space flight schedule are still up in the air,
according to Space Adventures. Olsen traveled to the space station with American astronaut William
McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev earlier this month. McArthur and Tokarev are to stay
aboard for a six-month mission, while Olsen returned with Phillips and Russian Sergei Krikalev, who
had been on the ISS since April.
Constipated? Go to a museum
Viewing and discussing art not only soothes the soul, it also helps cure ills like high blood pressure and
constipation, a Swedish researcher said on Friday. Britt-Maj Wikstroem of the Ersta Skoendal University
College in Stockholm had 20 women of around 80 years of age gather once a week for four months to
discuss different works of art. "The result was positive. Their attitudes became more positive, more
creative, their blood pressure went in the right direction ... and they used fewer laxatives," she told AFP.
A control group of 20 women who met to discuss their hobbies and interests once a week instead of art
did not experience the same effects, she pointed out. "There was a significant difference between the
groups," she said, adding that the art group had continued to show positive effects many months after
their last discussion. Wikstroem has been studying the effects of art on people in different settings since
the 1980s, including a study of how museum art hung in offices impacts on the employees working there.
"It's all about using art in a structured way," she said.
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