SAN JOSE, CA, Sep 13, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- The Tech Museum today raised the curtain on its most ambitious exhibition, The Tech Silicon Valley Innovation Gallery, revealing cutting-edge technology developed by the world's foremost experts on computing, digital design, communication and collaboration.

Once again I have been in Toronto General Hospital for a few days. I felt a short spell of the old chest pain on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, I had to have my INR checked. Afterwards, at the streetcar stop up at College and University, I felt so tired that I felt I had to lean against a newspaper box. Then I felt that I would fall down unless I hitched myself up on top of the box. I saw black spots in front of me and, feeling awful, I slumped back against the wall. Two streetcars came, but I did not feel strong enough to walk to them. After only about eight minutes, I hailed a cab and went to the hospital's emergency department.

They monitored my heart, but, because I have had two DVT's in my legs, the doctor recommended a CT scan on my lungs. The results showed that I had no clots in my lungs, only small scars of previous clots, but they did show that I had a growth behind my breast bone. There is a gland there called the thymus. It usually shrinks after adolescence, but mine is about half as long and wide as half my thumb. Because it is behind my upper sternum, the thoracic surgeons reckoned they could not do a biopsy on it without opening the chest and so they might as well remove it.

I was in hospital until yesterday establishing by CT scan, gamma ray exam and ultrasound that, if it was malignant, it has not spread to my abdomen or my scrotum. So it is quite safe for the moment, but they will split my chest like a walnut and take it out. As I am on blood thinners, we will probably wait two or three weeks and then some discomfort. Bwaaa!

This twenty foot sail has been deployed by a Japanese team to travel to Venus in two years:

IKAROS

Analysts believe that the launch of the new Japanese solar sail demonstrator Ikaros evidences the fact that the dawn of a new type of space exploration is upon us. They say that the spacecraft proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the technology is feasible, and that it could in the future be used to drive ships and satellites way beyond the solar system.
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This is precisely what space agencies around the world are looking for, a rather inexpensive way of exploring other worlds, way beyond Earth's orbit. Come to think of it, using sails that harness the power of the Sun is not different than what our forefathers did to harness the power of the wind. Ships allowed them to conquer the world.Now, it could be that solar sails could help us conquer the solar system, and also the galaxy beyond it, Space reports. Seeing how Japan has proven the viability of these sails, other nations and groups will try to launch similar devices as well. NASA will launch its spacecraft this fall, whereas the Planetary Society, which already tried to do so once, will have another go at it next year. “Solar sailing is the only known technology we have on Earth that will someday take us to the stars,” explains the executive director of the Planetary Society, Louis Friedman.“If you want to go really quickly to the outer edge of the solar system you'd want to use a solar sail,” adds space expert Les Johnson.“A chemical system [such as] a rocket would run out of gas long before you get there. With solar sails, as long as you've got the Sun you can keep going,” adds the scientist, who is the deputy manager of the Advanced Concepts Office.The organization is based at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), in Huntsville, Alabama. Experts now believe that self-powered spacecraft are the future, and not those that use conventional fuel. A further use for solar sail-powered ships would be to have them deployed around the Sun, so that they can keep an eye on the phenomena and events taking place at the star's surface. Conceivably, in the future manned spacecrafts that rely on the Sun for propulsion could take people to other destinations beyond the stars.For now, experts need to focus on perfecting their achievement, and ensuring that new sail materials are produced and then sent to space.