If you use an Odin contract machine you might have noticed that your Firefox home page is now permanently and possibly irrevocably set to @larc.
Archive Page 3
Loves me, loves me not ..
Published December 29, 2008 General Leave a CommentTags: griffin, langley, nasa, obama, petition, president-elect
Langley at critical juncture
Published December 29, 2008 General Leave a CommentTags: obama, nasa, langley, president-elect, climate change, atmospheric science
Former Langley employee Doug Dwoyer makes a call for action to position Langley in the future with a new administration coming in. Dwoyer’s call comes in an opinion piece that ran in Daily Press yesterday. View it here.
Our job as a community team is to make sure that the new administration recognizes these challenges, and recognizes that NASA and in particular NASA Langley can be major contributors to meeting the challenges. We only have a brief window to set the stage. Six months to a year from now, NASA’s direction within the Obama administration will be defined.
Dwoyer is a former associate director for center operations at Langley and currently is project director for the Hampton Roads Research Partnership and a member of the NASA Aeronautics Support Team.
Speedo suit makes Wired breakthrough list
Published December 26, 2008 General Leave a CommentTags: langley, lzr, nasa, speedo, technology breakthrough, wired
The Speedo swimsuit that Langley helped developed has made the list of Wired’s top 10 technology breakthroughs for 2008. Check it out here. What Wired said:
Michael Phelps. 2008 Olympics. Enough said. Phelps and others were able to log faster times because of Speedo’s LZR swimsuit. It blends new materials and a dose of NASA rocket science to boost the speeds of elite swimmers — legally.
Viscous drag on a swimmer can be as much as 25 percent of the total retarding force. But Speedo’s suit, with its ultrasonically bonded seams instead of stitches, low-drag panels and a mix of polyurethane layers, can cut resistance and help swimmers move through the water faster. It also has a rigid, girdle-style structure that helps position the swimmer’s body in an optimal position. Did it have anything to do with Michael Phelps’ amazing eight Olympic gold medals? Probably not, as nearly every swimmer at the Games was wearing a Speedo suit.
Outlook: We’re hoping at least some of the technologies in the LZR will trickle down to the consumer level so we can slice through the water at the Y.
Yes Virginia, there is a NORAD
Published December 25, 2008 General , Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: norad, santa
I’d thought that when the kids began to wonder what’s really up with Santa, I would read them that wonderful old editorial “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”
Christmas Eve, however, found us at the computer looking up Mr. Claus’s whereabouts via the Santa Tracker of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
The kids were mildly impressed by the web stuff. When I called 877 HINORAD and put them on speaker phone, things kicked into high gear.
Can’t speak for the kids, but I was totally shocked when a real person answered the phone. The very nice young NORAD lady asked where we lived, then told us Santa would enter Virginia airspace between 10 p.m. and midnight “and if you have any little ones, they should be in bed by nine o’clock!”
Talk about instant credibility. After the jaw-dropping was over, the eldest two made a beeline for their bedroom. When I tucked the youngest in, he asked to forgo the usual nighttime story so he could go right to sleep.
Unheard of!
The scene illustrated the power of a live human voice on the telephone … and the need in us all to continue believing.
Thanks NORAD.
NORAD reveals Santa-tracking secrets
Published December 24, 2008 General Leave a CommentTags: norad, santa
Since NORAD began tracking Santa in 1955, technology improvements have made the job a lot easier. For example, satellites can pick up the infrared signature from Rudolph’s nose. NORAD reveals a few secrets here. Or call 1-877-HINORAD.
For all of you on the good Earth
Published December 23, 2008 General Leave a CommentTags: apollo 8, christmas eve broadcast, nasa
On Christmas Eve 1968, astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders transmitted this holiday message as they orbited the moon in their Apollo 8 spacecraft.
The three astronauts became the first humans to visit another heavenly body, and their reading from the biblical book of Genesis has become known as the Christmas Eve Broadcast.
NASA Television will honor the 40th anniversary of the historic Christmas Eve broadcast with special programming Dec. 24 and 25 on the NASA TV Public Channel (101). Continue reading ‘For all of you on the good Earth’
OK, Kids. ENOUGH with the New Media already.
It’s the holidays, and whether you’re celebrating one of the big near-solstice festivals or not, it’s the time of year when you’re supposed to tell people you love that you love them. You’re supposed to reach out to your personal tribe, transcend temporary feuds or even lay to rest long running ones. You’re supposed to give to those less fortunate and spend some time contemplating the improvement of your person, spiritually, physically or mentally (or all of the above) and use these longest, darkest nights of the year toward making something positive happen.
So turn OFF your computer and call your mother, or dad, or aunt or whoever it is, and speak to them voice to voice. Or, better, visit them or have them over. Spend a few days away from your twitters, your Facebook addiction and your email OCD. Get down and funky with your phonograph, and those scratched up LPs you snuck out with when you left home.
Holidays are a time to venerate tradition, values and the beginnings of a new year full of hope and optimism. Go buy a newspaper or something!
We’re all familiar with the term “groupthink.” How does that dynamic play at Langley? Do we let it happen too much? Is groupthink ever good? Do we strike the right balance … or not?
I ask because the President-elect decried groupthink in these comments at a December 1 press conference in Chicago, when he introduced his national security cabinet members:
“I assembled this team because I’m a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. I think that’s how the best decisions are made. One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in groupthink and everybody agrees with everything and there’s no discussion and there are no dissenting views. So I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House.”
Bloggers and other commentators have said much on those remarks. Continue reading ‘Can we agree?’
NASA top stories of 2008
Published December 15, 2008 General 1 CommentTags: collier trophy, langley, mars, nasa, phoenix, speedo
Several Langley achievements made NASA’s list of “top stories” of 2008, including sharing in the Collier Trophy, helping Speedo with the LZR racer swimsuit that starred in the Summer Olympics, and the successful Mars Phoenix Lander mission.
Check out the full story here. You can also vote here for which on the list you think is the biggest NASA accomplishment of the past year.
Recent Comments