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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2007
SPACE
Astrophysicist floats free in zero-g
Peter Cosgrove/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is assisted off the tarmac at the Kennedy Space Center by his caregiver, Monica Guy, as he is applauded by members of the flight crew after completing a zero-gravity flight on Thursday in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Free of his wheelchair and tethered only to heart rate and blood pressure monitors, Hawking on Thursday fulfilled a dream of floating weightless on a zero-gravity jet, a step he hopes leads to further space adventures.
BY MIKE SCHNEIDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla. Free of his wheelchair and tethered only to heart rate and blood pressure monitors, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking on Thursday fulfilled a dream of floating weightless on a zero-gravity jet, a step he hopes leads to further space adventures.
The modified jet carrying Hawking, a handful of his physicians and nurses, and dozens of others first flew up to 24,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean off Florida. Nurses lifted Hawking and carried him to the front of the jet, where they placed him on his back atop a special foam pillow.
The jet then climbed to around 32,000 feet and made a parabolic dive back to 24,000 feet, allowing Hawking and the other passengers to experience weightlessness for about 25 seconds.
Hawking, a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge who has done groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe, has the paralyzing disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
The 65-year-old was the first person with a disability to experience the flight by Zero Gravity Corp., which has flown about 2,700 people out of Florida since late 2004 and began offering the flights in Las Vegas this week.
"As you can imagine, I'm very excited," Hawking told reporters before the flight. "I have been wheelchair bound for almost four decades. The chance to float free in zero-g was wonderful."
Unable to talk or move his hands and legs, Hawking can only make tiny facial expressions using the muscles around his eyes, eyebrows, cheek and mouth. He uses a computer attached to his wheelchair to talk for him in a synthesized voice by choosing words on a computer screen through an infrared sensor on a headpiece that detects motion in his cheek.
He raises an eyebrow to signal "yes" and tenses his mouth to the side to indicate "no"
"I want to demonstrate to the public that anybody can participate in this type of weight-
Hawking's personal physicians were on hand to make sure nothing went wrong. The physicist was attached to heart, blood pressure and oxygen-measuring monitors during the flight. Medical equipment sufficient for a min-intensive care unit also was on
board, said Dr. Edwin Chilvers,
Hawking's personal physician.
"I'm anticipating everything to nothing," Chilvers said before the flight.
Others on the flight included financial backers of Zero Gravity and passengers who bid a total of $150,000 toward charities to go on the flight.
POLITICS
BY CARL MANNING ASSOCIATED PRESS
House turns down second Sebelius veto
If the Senate does override, it will be second time in two years a veto by the Democratic gov-
TOPEKA — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' veto of a bill preventing local governments from imposing additional restrictions on Kansas carrying concealed guns was overridden Thursday in the House, but she will have to wait to see whether the Senate follows suit.
Last year, the Legislature overturned her veto of the bill allowing law-
error has been overridden by the Republica-controlled Legislature, each time over legislation dealing with concealed guns.
The 98-26 vote — 14 more than the two-thirds majority required — was the first step toward handing Sebelius her second veto defeat.
The Senate had planned to take up the override effort later Thursday, but postponed action because a senator who supports it was absent. The chamber passed the bill 29-11 and it takes 27 votes to override and allow the bill to become law.
"It's not a real surprise," Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said of the House vote.
abiding Kansans who meet state requirements to get a four-year permit to carry a concealed gun. Since January, the attorney general's office has issued some 6,500 permits.
Sen. Phil Journey, who plans to make the override motion, said there are more than enough votes to nullify the veto.
"The message to the governor and the people is that elected officials in the House support the Second Amendment."
governor said she didn't oppose an attempt to make concealed gun rules consistent statewide but the bill became flawed when the Senate reworked it.
Ruff called the governor's decision "an unfortunate turn of 'events'," adding she agrees with Sebelius on 98 percent of her positions.
Rep. L. Candy Ruff, who helped lead to override effort, called the vote margin "encouraged."
Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls said the vote was about what he expected.
MELVIN NEUFELD R-Ingalls
"The message to the governor and the people is that elected officials in the House support the Second Amendment and people's rights under it," he said. "The governor never supported the Second Amendment. It's not a surprise she didn't this time."
"It shows a determination by the House to have concealed carry consistently applied," said Ruff, D-Leaventworth. "We occupy the field of concealed carry, period."
The bill was a reaction to efforts by some cities, especially in Johnson County, to impose their own requirements.
Supporters say the state should set the requirements for concealed guns
so they will be uniform statewide, avoiding the possibility of someone unknowingly violating some local concealed gun ordinance that goes beyond state law.
Sebelius said she believes the bill took too much power away from local governments to regulate concealed guns, especially at outdoor events and locations such as parks.